Waxing
Gibbous ♊ Gemini
Moon phase on 15 December 2013 Sunday is Waxing Gibbous, 13 days young Moon is in Gemini.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaxing Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 97% and growing larger. The 13 days young Moon is in ♊ Gemini.
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Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 9 December 2013 at 15:12.
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 first ∠3° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 7.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1801" and ∠1950".
Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2013 after 1 day on 17 December 2013 at 09:28.
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 13 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the first to the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 172 of Meeus index or 1125 from Brown series.
Length of current 172 lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 52 minutes. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2013. It is 28 minutes longer than next lunation 173 length.
Length of current synodic month is 1 hour and 52 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 4 hours and 17 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠336.4°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠353°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep decreasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
11 days after point of perigee on 4 December 2013 at 10:15 in ♑ Capricorn. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 4 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 19 December 2013 at 23:49 in ♋ Cancer.
Moon is 397 961 km (247 282 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 4 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 406 269 km (252 444 mi).
2 days after its descending node on 13 December 2013 at 10:10 in ♉ Taurus, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 12 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 28 December 2013 at 00:21 in ♏ Scorpio.
14 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♏ Scorpio, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
11 days after previous South standstill on 3 December 2013 at 16:38 in ♐ Sagittarius, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-19.552°. Next day the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠19.570° in the next northern standstill on 17 December 2013 at 01:00 in ♊ Gemini.
After 1 day on 17 December 2013 at 09:28 in ♊ Gemini, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.