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

Waning Gibbous in Taurus

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 90% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 18 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 19 September 2013 at 11:13.

Harvest Moon before 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2013 after 26 days on 18 October 2013 at 23:38.

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 ∠1826"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1826" and ∠1912".

Lunation 169 / 1122

The Moon is 18 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 169 of Meeus index or 1122 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 58 minutes and it is 43 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠249.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠249.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠285.3°.

Moon before apogee

6 days since point of perigee on 15 September 2013 at 16:34 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 27 September 2013 at 18:17 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 392 461 km

The Moon is 392 461 km (243 864 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 309 km (251 226 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♉ Taurus at 13:48 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 6 October 2013 at 22:08 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 12 September 2013 at 18:30 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.685° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.599° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 September 2013 at 01:03 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 5 October 2013 at 00:35 in ♎ Libra 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