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

Waning Gibbous in Aquarius

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 87% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 18 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

The 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 phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 5 July 2001 at 15:04.

Buck Moon before 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2001 after 25 days on 4 August 2001 at 05:56.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1887".

Lunation 18 / 971

The Moon is 18 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 18 of Meeus index or 971 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.32 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 47 minutes and it is 36 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 57 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 12 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠324.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠324.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠342.5°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 11:24 about 15 days since last perigee on 23 June 2001 at 17:14 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 21 July 2001 at 20:44 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 405 565 km

This apogee Moon is 405 565 km (252 006 mi) away from Earth. It is 157 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 144 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 5 July 2001 at 00:48 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 19 July 2001 at 08:24 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 5 July 2001 at 12:19 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-23.413° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠23.418° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 July 2001 at 17:53 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 20 July 2001 at 19:44 in ♋ Cancer 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