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

Waning Gibbous in Cancer

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 98% 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 in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 25 December 2053 at 09:23.

Cold Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2054 after 28 days on 23 January 2054 at 20:08.

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 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1951".

Lunation 667 / 1620

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 667 of Meeus index or 1620 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.79 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 53 minutes and it is 47 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2053. 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 6 hours and 9 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 54 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠141.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠141.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠168.6°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 06:40 about 12 days since last apogee on 13 December 2053 at 21:20 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next apogee on 10 January 2054 at 05:56 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 358 032 km

This perigee Moon is 358 032 km (222 471 mi) away from Earth. It is 4 476 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 12 324 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 17 December 2053 at 00:48 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 29 December 2053 at 18:29 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 25 December 2053 at 11:21 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.770° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.772° at the point of next southern standstill on 7 January 2054 at 19:44 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 8 January 2054 at 22:34 in ♑ Capricorn 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