Waning
Gibbous ♍ Virgo
Moon phase on 26 December 2018 Wednesday is Waning Gibbous, 19 days old Moon is in Leo.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaning Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 81% and getting smaller. The 19 days old Moon is in ♌ Leo.
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 22 December 2018 at 17:49.
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 is leaving the last ∠4° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♍ Virgo later.
Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1951".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2019 after 25 days on 21 January 2019 at 05:16.
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.
The Moon is 19 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the middle to the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 234 of Meeus index or 1187 from Brown series.
Length of current 234 lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 8 minutes. It is 1 hour and 27 minutes shorter than next lunation 235 length.
Length of current synodic month is 5 hours and 24 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 1 hour and 39 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠116.6°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠149.4°. 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°).
2 days after point of perigee on 24 December 2018 at 09:52 in ♋ Cancer. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 13 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 9 January 2019 at 04:29 in ♒ Aquarius.
Moon is 363 582 km (225 919 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 13 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 406 116 km (252 349 mi).
2 days after its ascending node on 24 December 2018 at 11:54 in ♋ Cancer, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next 11 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 7 January 2019 at 00:08 in ♒ Aquarius.
2 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♋ Cancer, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
3 days after previous North standstill on 23 December 2018 at 11:48 in ♋ Cancer, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠21.550°. Next 10 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-21.553° in the next southern standstill on 5 January 2019 at 18:45 in ♑ Capricorn.
After 10 days on 6 January 2019 at 01:28 in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.