Waning Crescent on

Moon phase on 23 December 2016 Friday is Waning Crescent, 24 days old Moon is in Libra.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2016 | December 2016

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

Waning Crescent 28% illuminated

Waning Crescent is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 28% and getting smaller. The 24 days old Moon is in ♎ Libra.

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Moon phases for next 7 days

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Moon phase and lunation details

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 21 December 2016 at 01:56.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Moon in ♎ Libra

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1777"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1777" and ∠1951".

Wolf Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2017 after 19 days on 12 January 2017 at 11:34.

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 209 / 1162

The Moon is 24 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the second to the final part of current synodic month. This is lunation 209 of Meeus index or 1162 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.77 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes. It is 1 hour and 21 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 5 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠194.9°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠194.9°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠223.4°.

Moon before perigee

10 days after point of perigee on 12 December 2016 at 23:27 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 25 December 2016 at 05:55 in ♏ Scorpio.

Previous perigeeNext apogee

Distance to Moon 403 349 km

The Moon is 403 349 km (250 629 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 870 km (252 196 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 19 December 2016 at 04:46 in ♍ Virgo. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 2 January 2017 at 18:14 in ♒ Aquarius.

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Draconic month

4 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♍ Virgo, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.

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Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the previous standstill on 14 December 2016 at 21:43 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.937°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.958° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 December 2016 at 03:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

Previous standstillNext standstill

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 29 December 2016 at 06:53 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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