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 97% 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 9 October 2022 at 20:55.

Hunter Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2022 after 27 days on 8 November 2022 at 11:02.

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 ∠1838"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1838" and ∠1922".

Lunation 281 / 1234

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 281 of Meeus index or 1234 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 54 minutes and it is 45 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 10 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 53 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠265.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠265.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠299.9°.

Moon before apogee

6 days since point of perigee on 4 October 2022 at 17:01 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 17 October 2022 at 10:21 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 389 898 km

The Moon is 389 898 km (242 271 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 330 km (251 239 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♉ Taurus at 21:49 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 26 October 2022 at 06:30 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 2 October 2022 at 19:33 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.411° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.473° at the point of next northern standstill on 16 October 2022 at 06:12 in ♋ Cancer.

New draconic month

At 21:49 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 25 October 2022 at 10:49 in ♏ Scorpio 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