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 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 2 December 2047 at 11:55.

Cold Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2048 after 27 days on 1 January 2048 at 06:57.

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 ∠1792"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1792" and ∠1947".

Lunation 592 / 1545

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 592 of Meeus index or 1545 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 39 minutes and it is 1 hour and 15 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 5 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 4 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠2.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠2.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠18.2°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 30 November 2047 at 16:36 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 December 2047 at 21:51 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 399 994 km

The Moon is 399 994 km (248 545 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 891 km (223 005 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♋ Cancer at 17:15 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 17 December 2047 at 18:40 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 3 December 2047 at 05:15 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.550° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.562° at the point of next southern standstill on 16 December 2047 at 13:59 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 16 December 2047 at 23:38 in ♐ Sagittarius 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