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

Waning Gibbous in Taurus

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 95% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 16 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 is entering ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 30 September 2050 at 17:31.

Harvest Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2050 after 27 days on 30 October 2050 at 03:16.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1942"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1942" and ∠1918".

Lunation 627 / 1580

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 627 of Meeus index or 1580 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 59 minutes and it is 6 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2050. 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 4 hours and 15 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 48 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠186.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠186.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠212°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 30 September 2050 at 00:42 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 October 2050 at 15:51 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 369 017 km

The Moon is 369 017 km (229 297 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 050 km (252 308 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 20 September 2050 at 06:06 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 3 October 2050 at 00:50 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 23 September 2050 at 06:36 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.906° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.840° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 October 2050 at 19:06 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 15 October 2050 at 20:48 in ♎ Libra 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