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

Waning Gibbous in Aquarius

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 95% 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 is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 28 June 2018 at 04:53.

Strawberry Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2018 after 27 days on 27 July 2018 at 20:20.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1887".

Lunation 228 / 1181

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 228 of Meeus index or 1181 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.3 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 5 minutes and it is 5 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2018. 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 39 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 30 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠340.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠340.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠356°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 02:43 about 15 days since last perigee on 14 June 2018 at 23:55 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 13 July 2018 at 08:28 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 406 061 km

This apogee Moon is 406 061 km (252 315 mi) away from Earth. It is 653 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 648 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♒ Aquarius at 16:44 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 14 July 2018 at 02:50 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 28 June 2018 at 14:30 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.775° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.761° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 July 2018 at 12:01 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 13 July 2018 at 02:48 in ♋ Cancer 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