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

Waning Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 98% 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠16° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 20 May 2008 at 02:11.

Flower Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2008 after 28 days on 18 June 2008 at 17:30.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1895".

Lunation 103 / 1056

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 103 of Meeus index or 1056 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.29 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 4 minutes and it is 8 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 5 hours and 40 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 29 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠349.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠349.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠4.4°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 20 May 2008 at 14:27 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 3 June 2008 at 13:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 405 082 km

The Moon is 405 082 km (251 706 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 251 km (221 985 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 12 May 2008 at 06:37 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 May 2008 at 21:45 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 8 May 2008 at 01:51 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.625° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-27.542° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 May 2008 at 04:00 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 3 June 2008 at 19:23 in ♊ Gemini 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