Waning
Gibbous ♍ Virgo
Moon phase on 31 December 2023 Sunday is Waning Gibbous, 19 days old Moon is in Virgo.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinWaning Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 82% and getting smaller. The 19 days old Moon is in ♍ Virgo.
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Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 4 days on 27 December 2023 at 00:33.
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 passing first ∠0° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1951".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2024 after 25 days on 25 January 2024 at 17:54.
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 296 of Meeus index or 1249 from Brown series.
Length of current 296 lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 25 minutes. It is 1 hour and 23 minutes longer than next lunation 297 length.
Length of current synodic month is 19 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 5 hours and 50 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠303.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠328°. 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°).
14 days after point of perigee on 16 December 2023 at 18:53 in ♒ Aquarius. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next day, until it get to the point of next apogee on 1 January 2024 at 15:28 in ♍ Virgo.
Moon is 405 126 km (251 734 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next day until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 404 911 km (251 600 mi).
9 days after its ascending node on 21 December 2023 at 13:54 in ♈ Aries, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next 4 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 4 January 2024 at 18:52 in ♎ Libra.
9 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♈ Aries, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
4 days after previous North standstill on 26 December 2023 at 21:50 in ♊ Gemini, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠28.131°. Next 9 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-28.164° in the next southern standstill on 10 January 2024 at 07:04 in ♑ Capricorn.
After 10 days on 11 January 2024 at 11:57 in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.