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

Waning Gibbous in Leo

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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 24 January 2016 at 01:46.

Wolf Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2016 after 28 days on 22 February 2016 at 18:20.

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 ∠1812"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1812" and ∠1949".

Lunation 198 / 1151

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 198 of Meeus index or 1151 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.55 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 8 minutes and it is 1 hour and 52 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 24 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 39 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠292.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠292.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠319.8°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 15 January 2016 at 02:10 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 30 January 2016 at 09:10 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 395 500 km

The Moon is 395 500 km (245 752 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 553 km (251 378 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 14 January 2016 at 15:48 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 27 January 2016 at 23:58 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

3 days since the last northern standstill on 21 January 2016 at 16:41 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.375° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.303° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 February 2016 at 04:34 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 14 days

In 14 days on 8 February 2016 at 14:39 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