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

Waning Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 94% 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 10 May 2017 at 21:43.

Flower Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2017 after 27 days on 9 June 2017 at 13:10.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1899".

Lunation 214 / 1167

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 214 of Meeus index or 1167 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.31 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 28 minutes and it is 42 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 16 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 53 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠340.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠340.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠356°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 12 May 2017 at 19:51 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 26 May 2017 at 01:23 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 405 111 km

The Moon is 405 111 km (251 724 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 210 km (221 960 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 4 May 2017 at 10:42 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 19 May 2017 at 01:30 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 30 April 2017 at 13:33 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.187° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-19.302° at the point of next southern standstill on 14 May 2017 at 20:29 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 25 May 2017 at 19:44 in ♉ Taurus 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