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

Waning Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 87% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 18 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

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.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠24° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 28 April 2048 at 11:13.

Pink Moon before 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2048 after 26 days on 27 May 2048 at 18:57.

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 ∠1970"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1970" and ∠1904".

Lunation 597 / 1550

The Moon is 18 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 597 of Meeus index or 1550 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 38 minutes and it is 14 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 54 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 9 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠135.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠135.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠163°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 29 April 2048 at 14:29 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 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 14 May 2048 at 17:19 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 363 802 km

The Moon is 363 802 km (226 056 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 13 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 299 km (252 462 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 18:46 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 15 May 2048 at 20:07 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon at southern standstill

At 02:39 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-23.803°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠23.751° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 15 May 2048 at 00:49.

New draconic month

At 18:46 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 12 May 2048 at 20:58 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