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 88% 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 in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♑ Capricorn later.

3 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 2 May 2053 at 20:25.

Flower Moon before 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2053 after 25 days on 1 June 2053 at 11:02.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1901".

Lunation 659 / 1612

The Moon is 18 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 659 of Meeus index or 1612 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 55 minutes and it is 1 hour and 47 minutes 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 20 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠316.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠316.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠336.2°.

Moon before apogee

14 days since point of perigee on 21 April 2053 at 13:57 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 day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 7 May 2053 at 10:56 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 405 301 km

The Moon is 405 301 km (251 842 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 235 km (251 801 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 29 April 2053 at 02:42 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 May 2053 at 15:17 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 20:48 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-18.351°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠18.416° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 20 May 2053 at 10:17.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 18 May 2053 at 03:43 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