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

Waning Gibbous in Aquarius

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 75% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 19 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 20 May 2008 at 02:11.

Flower Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2008 after 24 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 ∠1816"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1816" and ∠1894".

Lunation 103 / 1056

The Moon is 19 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

4 days 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 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 3 June 2008 at 13:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 394 681 km

The Moon is 394 681 km (245 243 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 251 km (221 985 mi).

Moon before ascending node

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

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 22 May 2008 at 04:00 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.542° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.527° at the point of next northern standstill on 4 June 2008 at 11:38 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

25 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 9 days

In 9 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