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 ∠5° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 23 April 2024 at 23:49.

Pink Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2024 after 27 days on 23 May 2024 at 13:53.

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 3.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1838" and ∠1906".

Lunation 300 / 1253

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 300 of Meeus index or 1253 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.38 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 1 minute and it is 15 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2024. 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 3 hours and 43 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 26 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠17.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠17.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠36°.

Moon after apogee

6 days since point of apogee on 20 April 2024 at 02:09 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 5 May 2024 at 22:11 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 389 939 km

The Moon is 389 939 km (242 297 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 166 km (225 661 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 22 April 2024 at 10:45 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 5 May 2024 at 21:54 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 13 April 2024 at 22:36 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.552° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.509° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 April 2024 at 14:28 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 8 May 2024 at 03:22 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