Crescent ♐ Sagittarius
Moon phase on 31 December 2010 Friday is Waning Crescent, 25 days old Moon is in Scorpio.Share this page: twitter facebook linkedin
Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 28 December 2010 at 04:18.
Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.
Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 1.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1919" and ∠1951".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2011 after 19 days on 19 January 2011 at 21:21.
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 25 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the second to the final part of current synodic month. This is lunation 135 of Meeus index or 1088 from Brown series.
Length of current 135 lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 27 minutes. It is 2 hours and 1 minute shorter than next lunation 136 length.
Length of current synodic month is 2 hours and 43 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 4 hours and 20 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠67°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠103.5°. 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°).
5 days after point of perigee on 25 December 2010 at 12:24 in ♌ Leo. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 9 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 10 January 2011 at 05:38 in ♓ Pisces.
Moon is 373 580 km (232 132 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 9 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 404 976 km (251 640 mi).
9 days after its descending node on 21 December 2010 at 14:08 in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 3 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 3 January 2011 at 12:48 in ♑ Capricorn.
24 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
10 days after previous North standstill on 20 December 2010 at 12:37 in ♊ Gemini, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠24.238°. Next day the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-24.242° in the next southern standstill on 2 January 2011 at 10:06 in ♐ Sagittarius.
After 3 days on 4 January 2011 at 09:03 in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.