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

Waning Gibbous in Libra

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 96% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 16 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 7 March 2023 at 12:40.

Worm Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2023 after 27 days on 6 April 2023 at 04:35.

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 ∠1824"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1824" and ∠1932".

Lunation 286 / 1239

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 286 of Meeus index or 1239 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 17 minutes and it is 32 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 27 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 42 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠15.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠15.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠34.1°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 3 March 2023 at 18:01 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 March 2023 at 15:16 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 392 949 km

The Moon is 392 949 km (244 167 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 10 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 698 km (225 370 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 24 February 2023 at 18:56 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 11 March 2023 at 08:53 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 1 March 2023 at 14:09 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.716° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.831° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 March 2023 at 21:43 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 21 March 2023 at 17:23 in ♓ Pisces 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