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

Waning Gibbous in Virgo

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 97% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 16 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 is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 28 January 2059 at 15:11.

Wolf Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2059 after 27 days on 27 February 2059 at 10:06.

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 9.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1948".

Lunation 730 / 1683

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 730 of Meeus index or 1683 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes and it is 52 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 2 hours and 14 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 55 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠341.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠341.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠357°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 13:03 about 15 days since last perigee on 15 January 2059 at 06:49 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 13 days until point of next perigee on 12 February 2059 at 18:34 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 406 368 km

This apogee Moon is 406 368 km (252 505 mi) away from Earth. It is 960 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 341 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

7 days after ascending node on 23 January 2059 at 08:38 in ♊ Gemini 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 6 February 2059 at 23:45 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 26 January 2059 at 04:36 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.006° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.103° at the point of next southern standstill on 9 February 2059 at 14:58 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 12 February 2059 at 14:27 in ♒ Aquarius 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