December 17 Daily Correspondence Digest for the Northern Hemisphere’s Moon Phase and Planetary Positions

You can use this link to go forward or backward in time for Moon phase information. If you are curious you can even find out what phase the Moon was in when you or anyone else, you know was on the date the person was born.

From Moongiant.com

The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is a Waxing Gibbous phase. This phase is when the moon is more than 50% illuminated but not yet a Full Moon. The phase lasts about 7 days with the moon becoming more illuminated each day until the Full Moon. During a Waxing Gibbous the moon rises in the east in mid-afternoon and is high in the eastern sky at sunset. The moon is then visible through most of the night sky setting a few hours before sunrise. The word Gibbous first appeared in the 14th century and has its roots in the Latin word “gibbosus” meaning humpbacked.

Visit the December 2021 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waxing Gibbous Phase

The Waxing Gibbous on December 17 has an illumination of 97%. 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 17 the Moon is 13.26 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.

The 8 Lunar 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.

Phase Details

Useful Moon Resources

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

If you need to calculate the planetary positions for a specific use and time, click on this link

Currentplanetarypositions.com

To figure out GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to your local time use this link

For Your Local Time and Date

Northern Hempishere

The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Frankfurt, Germany, Europe

17 December 2021
04:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM CEST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:25 Sagittarius 56
Moon:09 Gemini 29
Mercury:06 Capricorn 10
Venus:26 Capricorn 26
Mars:02 Sagittarius 59
Jupiter:27 Aquarius 55
Saturn:10 Aquarius 26
Uranus:11 Taurus 15 Rx
Neptune:20 Pisces 29
Pluto:25 Capricorn 29
True Lunar Node:01 Gemini 42 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:00 Gemini 17 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):16 Gemini 52
Chiron:08 Aries 26 Rx
Ceres:00 Gemini 39 Rx
Pallas:13 Pisces 15
Juno:11 Capricorn 53
Vesta:16 Sagittarius 48
Eris:23 Aries 44 Rx

Fire:5
Earth:5
Air:7
Water:2

Cardinal:6
Fixed:3
Mutable:10

Northwestern Hemisphere

The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Chicago, Illinois, USA

December 17, 2021
11:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM CST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:26 Sagittarius 14
Moon:12 Gemini 55
Mercury:06 Capricorn 38
Venus:26 Capricorn 27
Mars:03 Sagittarius 11
Jupiter:27 Aquarius 58
Saturn:10 Aquarius 28
Uranus:11 Taurus 14 Rx
Neptune:20 Pisces 29
Pluto:25 Capricorn 30
True Lunar Node:01 Gemini 42 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:00 Gemini 16 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):16 Gemini 54
Chiron:08 Aries 26 Rx
Ceres:00 Gemini 36 Rx
Pallas:13 Pisces 18
Juno:12 Capricorn 00
Vesta:16 Sagittarius 58
Eris:23 Aries 44 Rx

Fire:5
Earth:5
Air:7
Water:2

Cardinal:6
Fixed:3
Mutable:10