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

Waning Gibbous in Cancer

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 98% 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 3 January 2026 at 10:03.

Wolf Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2026 after 28 days on 1 February 2026 at 22:09.

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 ∠1927"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1927" and ∠1951".

Lunation 321 / 1274

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 321 of Meeus index or 1274 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.76 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 9 minutes and it is 2 hours 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 5 hours and 25 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 38 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠207°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠207° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠239°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 1 January 2026 at 21:43 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 13 January 2026 at 20:48 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 372 007 km

The Moon is 372 007 km (231 154 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 437 km (251 927 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 25 December 2025 at 22:03 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 7 January 2026 at 11:22 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 2 January 2026 at 08:20 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.265° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.302° at the point of next southern standstill on 16 January 2026 at 05:25 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 14 days

In 14 days on 18 January 2026 at 19:52 in ♑ Capricorn 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