Waning Gibbous on

Moon phase on 31 December 2015 Thursday is Waning Gibbous, 20 days old Moon is in Virgo.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2015 | December 2015

Waning Gibbous phase
Waning Gibbous phase
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

Waning Gibbous 66% illuminated

Waning Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 66% and getting smaller. The 20 days old Moon is in ♍ Virgo.

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Moon phases for next 7 days

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Moon phase and lunation details

6 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 6 days on 25 December 2015 at 11:11.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises in the evening and sets in the morning. It is visible to the southwest and it is high in the sky after midnight.

Moon in ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1776"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1776" and ∠1951".

Cold Moon before 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2016 after 23 days on 24 January 2016 at 01:46.

Upcoming main Moon phases

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Lunation 197 / 1150

The Moon is 20 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the middle to the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 197 of Meeus index or 1150 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 1 minute. It is 1 hour and 53 minutes longer than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decreasing with the true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 17 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 46 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠255.6°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠255.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠292.2°.

Moon before perigee

10 days after point of perigee on 21 December 2015 at 08:53 in ♉ Taurus. The lunar orbit is getting widen, while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day, until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 2 January 2016 at 11:53 in ♎ Libra.

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Distance to Moon 403 510 km

The Moon is 403 510 km (250 729 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 279 km (251 207 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♍ Virgo at 20:19 crossing the ecliptic from South to North to meet descending node 14 days later on 14 January 2016 at 15:48 in ♓ Pisces.

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New draconic month

At 20:19 the Moon completes the previous draconic month and enters the new one.

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Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the previous standstill on 25 December 2015 at 07:30 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.444°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.420° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 January 2016 at 17:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

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Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 10 January 2016 at 01:30 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is going to be in a New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy alignment.

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