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

Waning Gibbous in Libra

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 91% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 17 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 13 February 2006 at 04:44.

Snow Moon before 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2006 after 26 days on 14 March 2006 at 23:35.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1781"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1781" and ∠1942".

Lunation 75 / 1028

The Moon is 17 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 after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 14 February 2006 at 00:48 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 27 February 2006 at 20:27 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 402 434 km

The Moon is 402 434 km (250 061 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 885 km (221 758 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♍ Virgo at 14:38 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 1 March 2006 at 16:25 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

7 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 6 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

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

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 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