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 84% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 18 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 30 March 2048 at 02:04.

Worm Moon before 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2048 after 25 days on 28 April 2048 at 11:13.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1919".

Lunation 596 / 1549

The Moon is 18 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 596 of Meeus index or 1549 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.62 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 52 minutes and it is 46 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 8 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 55 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠100.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠100.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠135.6°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 1 April 2048 at 10:10 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 17 April 2048 at 07:22 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 363 466 km

The Moon is 363 466 km (225 847 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 14 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 534 km (251 987 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 22 March 2048 at 14:49 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 4 April 2048 at 14:57 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 21 March 2048 at 12:10 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.093° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-23.977° at the point of next southern standstill on 3 April 2048 at 18:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 13 April 2048 at 05:20 in ♈ Aries 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