Waning Gibbous Moon
Waning Gibbous MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

Waning Gibbous in Virgo

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 97% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 16 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

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.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♍ Virgo

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♎ Libra later.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 25 February 2013 at 20:26.

Snow Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2013 after 27 days on 27 March 2013 at 09:27.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1888"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1888" and ∠1937".

Lunation 162 / 1115

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 162 of Meeus index or 1115 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 31 minutes and it is 1 hour and 13 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 13 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 56 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠44.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠44.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠73.6°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 19 February 2013 at 06:30 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 5 March 2013 at 23:20 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 379 673 km

The Moon is 379 673 km (235 918 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 954 km (229 879 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 17 February 2013 at 02:57 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 3 March 2013 at 02:30 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 19 February 2013 at 13:35 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.583° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.453° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 March 2013 at 06:41 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 11 March 2013 at 19:51 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is going to be in a New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov