Gibbous ♍ Virgo
Moon phase on 11 January 2012 Wednesday is Waning Gibbous, 17 days old Moon is in Leo.Share this page: twitter facebook linkedin
Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 9 January 2012 at 07:30.
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 about ∠18° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 2.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1896" and ∠1951".
Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2012 after 27 days on 7 February 2012 at 21:54.
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 17 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the middle to the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 148 of Meeus index or 1101 from Brown series.
Length of current 148 lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 33 minutes. It is 1 hour and 22 minutes shorter than next lunation 149 length.
Length of current synodic month is 49 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 6 hours and 14 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠42.1°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠70.8°. 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°).
8 days after point of apogee on 2 January 2012 at 20:19 in ♈ Aries. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 6 days, until it get to the point of next perigee on 17 January 2012 at 21:28 in ♏ Scorpio.
Moon is 378 073 km (234 924 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next 6 days until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 369 883 km (229 835 mi).
4 days after its descending node on 6 January 2012 at 14:30 in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 8 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 19 January 2012 at 18:26 in ♐ Sagittarius.
19 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
4 days after previous North standstill on 6 January 2012 at 21:46 in ♊ Gemini, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠22.539°. Next 8 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-22.492° in the next southern standstill on 20 January 2012 at 02:12 in ♐ Sagittarius.
After 11 days on 23 January 2012 at 07:39 in ♒ Aquarius, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.