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

Waning Gibbous in Virgo

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 91% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 17 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 in ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 19 January 2011 at 21:21.

Wolf Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2011 after 26 days on 18 February 2011 at 08:36.

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 ∠1969"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1969" and ∠1950".

Lunation 136 / 1089

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 136 of Meeus index or 1089 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.73 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 28 minutes and it is 47 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 4 hours and 44 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 19 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠103.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠103.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠139.2°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 00:10 about 11 days since last apogee on 10 January 2011 at 05:38 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next apogee on 6 February 2011 at 23:13 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 362 793 km

This perigee Moon is 362 793 km (225 429 mi) away from Earth. It is 285 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 7 563 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 18 January 2011 at 00:06 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 January 2011 at 18:29 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 16 January 2011 at 22:51 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.221° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.180° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 January 2011 at 16:26 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

18 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 11 days

In 11 days on 3 February 2011 at 02:31 in ♒ Aquarius 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