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 97% 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 ∠3° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 5 October 2055 at 18:38.

Hunter Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2055 after 28 days on 4 November 2055 at 12:12.

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 ∠1774"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1774" and ∠1920".

Lunation 689 / 1642

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 689 of Meeus index or 1642 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 30 minutes and it is 1 hour and 15 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 14 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 55 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠352.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠352.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠7.9°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 5 October 2055 at 17:59 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 October 2055 at 23:43 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 404 030 km

The Moon is 404 030 km (251 053 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 259 km (221 990 mi).

Moon after descending node

7 days after descending node on 30 September 2055 at 10:30 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 15 October 2055 at 00:14 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 28 September 2055 at 05:09 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.612° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.758° at the point of next northern standstill on 13 October 2055 at 00:16 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

19 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 20 October 2055 at 10:49 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