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 99% 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 passing about ∠10° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 13 February 2006 at 04:44.

Snow Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2006 after 28 days on 14 March 2006 at 23:35.

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 9.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1943".

Lunation 75 / 1028

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 75 of Meeus index or 1028 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 16 minutes and it is 32 minutes longer 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 2 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠347.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠347.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠2.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 00:48 about 14 days since last perigee on 30 January 2006 at 07:47 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 13 days until point of next perigee on 27 February 2006 at 20:27 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 406 362 km

This apogee Moon is 406 362 km (252 502 mi) away from Earth. It is 954 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 347 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 2 February 2006 at 08:02 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 16 February 2006 at 14:38 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 8 February 2006 at 18:18 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.555° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.648° at the point of next southern standstill on 23 February 2006 at 09:37 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 28 February 2006 at 00:31 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