Waxing
Gibbous ♊ Gemini
Moon phase on 4 January 2012 Wednesday is Waxing Gibbous, 10 days young Moon is in Taurus.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaxing Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 79% and growing larger. The 10 days young Moon is in ♉ Taurus.
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Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 3 days on 1 January 2012 at 06:15.
Moon rises in the afternoon and sets after midnight to early morning. It is visible to the southeast in early evening and it is up for most of the night.
Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 9.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1772" and ∠1951".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2012 after 4 days on 9 January 2012 at 07:30.
There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.
The Moon is 10 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the first to the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 148 of Meeus index or 1101 from Brown series.
Length of current 148 lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 33 minutes. It is 1 hour and 22 minutes shorter than next lunation 149 length.
Length of current synodic month is 49 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 6 hours and 14 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠42.1°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠70.8°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep increasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of apogee (∠180°).
1 day after point of apogee on 2 January 2012 at 20:19 in ♈ Aries. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 13 days, until it get to the point of next perigee on 17 January 2012 at 21:28 in ♏ Scorpio.
Moon is 404 478 km (251 331 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next 13 days until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 369 883 km (229 835 mi).
12 days after its ascending node on 23 December 2011 at 11:36 in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next 2 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 6 January 2012 at 14:30 in ♊ Gemini.
12 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
11 days after previous South standstill on 23 December 2011 at 17:25 in ♐ Sagittarius, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-22.554°. Next 2 days the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠22.539° in the next northern standstill on 6 January 2012 at 21:46 in ♊ Gemini.
After 4 days on 9 January 2012 at 07:30 in ♋ Cancer, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.