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 59% 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 in ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 3 December 2017 at 15:47.

Cold Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2018 after 23 days on 2 January 2018 at 02:24.

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 ∠1916"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1916" and ∠1948".

Lunation 221 / 1174

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 221 of Meeus index or 1174 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 48 minutes and it is 59 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 6 hours and 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠147°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠147° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠173.3°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 4 December 2017 at 08:42 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 19 December 2017 at 01:27 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 374 123 km

The Moon is 374 123 km (232 469 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 605 km (252 653 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 8 December 2017 at 00:39 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 22 December 2017 at 10:04 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 5 December 2017 at 11:43 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.015° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.062° at the point of next southern standstill on 19 December 2017 at 09:31 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 18 December 2017 at 06:31 in ♐ Sagittarius 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