December 20 Waning Gibbous 74% |
December 21 Waning Gibbous 65% |
December 22 Last Quarter Illumination: 55% |
December 23 Waning Crescent 45% |
December 24 Waning Crescent 36% |
On this day the Moon will be in a Last Quarter phase. This phase occurs roughly 3 weeks after the New Moon when the Moon is three quarter of the way through it’s orbit around the earth. If you live in the northern hemisphere the Moons left side will be illuminated and the right side will be dark. For those of you in the southern hemisphere it will be the opposite with the right side illuminated. Also called a Third Quarter phase, it will rise around midnight on the eastern horizon and set in the west around noon the next day. In the days following the Third Quarter Phase the Moon’s illumination will decrees each day until the New Moon.
Visit the December 2396 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.
The Last Quarter on December 22 has an illumination of 55%. This is the percentage of the Moon illuminated by the Sun. The illumination is constantly changing and can vary up to 10% a day. On December 22 the Moon is 21.68 days old. This refers to how many days it has been since the last New Moon. It takes 29.53 days for the Moon to orbit the Earth and go through the lunar cycle of all 8 Moon phases.
There are 8 lunar phases the Moon goes through in its 29.53 days lunar cycle. The 4 major Moon phases are Full Moon, New Moon, First Quarter and Last Quarter. Between these major phases, there are 4 minor ones: the Waxing Crescent, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous and Waning Crescent. For more info on the Moon Cycle and on each phase check out Wikipedia Lunar Phase page.
Check the weather before a night of Moon gazing at weather.com
For a list of all the current meteor showers visit American Meteor Society