Waning Gibbous on

Moon phase on 31 December 2020 Thursday is Waning Gibbous, 16 days old Moon is in Cancer.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2020 | December 2020

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

Waning Gibbous 98% illuminated

Waning Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 98% and getting smaller. The 16 days old Moon is in ♋ Cancer.

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Moon phases for next 7 days

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Moon phase and lunation details

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 30 December 2020 at 03:28.

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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1849"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1849" and ∠1951".

Cold Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2021 after 28 days on 28 January 2021 at 19:16.

Upcoming main Moon phases

Moderate tide

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.

Lunation 259 / 1212

The Moon is 16 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the middle to the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 259 of Meeus index or 1212 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes. It is 1 hour and 21 minutes shorter than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increasing with the true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length same as the mean

The length of the current synodic month is equal to the mean synodic month length. It is %hours_to_shortest% and %minutes_to_shortest% longer than the 21st century's shortest and %hours_to_longest% and %minutes_to_longest% shorter than the 21st century's longest synodic months.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠30.1°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠30.1°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠53.8°.

Moon after apogee

6 days after point of apogee on 24 December 2020 at 16:32 in ♈ Aries. The lunar orbit is getting narrow, while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 9 January 2021 at 15:39 in ♏ Scorpio.

Previous apogeeNext perigee

Distance to Moon 387 645 km

The Moon is 387 645 km (240 871 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 390 km (228 286 mi).

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 28 December 2020 at 15:03 in ♊ Gemini. 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 10 January 2021 at 20:15 in ♐ Sagittarius.

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Draconic month

2 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.

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Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the previous standstill on 30 December 2020 at 07:53 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.868°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.870° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 January 2021 at 08:18 in ♑ Capricorn.

Previous standstillNext standstill

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 13 January 2021 at 05:00 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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