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

Waning Gibbous in Leo

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 63% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 2 November 2009 at 19:14.

Beaver Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2009 after 23 days on 2 December 2009 at 07:30.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1937".

Lunation 121 / 1074

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 121 of Meeus index or 1074 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.57 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 41 minutes and it is 3 hours and 7 minutes shorter 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 57 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 6 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠65.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠65.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠99.9°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 7 November 2009 at 07:30 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 November 2009 at 20:07 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 363 331 km

The Moon is 363 331 km (225 763 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 14 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 736 km (251 491 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 7 November 2009 at 23:25 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 21 November 2009 at 11:34 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 5 November 2009 at 15:31 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.856° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.795° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 November 2009 at 19:53 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 16 November 2009 at 19:14 in ♏ Scorpio 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