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

Waning Gibbous in Libra

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 in ♎ Libra

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 26 March 2070 at 17:31.

Worm Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2070 after 27 days on 25 April 2070 at 09:31.

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 ∠1785"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1785" and ∠1922".

Lunation 868 / 1821

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 868 of Meeus index or 1821 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 38 minutes and it is 2 hours 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 6 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 3 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠312°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠312° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠333.5°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 15 March 2070 at 17:55 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 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 31 March 2070 at 17:01 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 401 596 km

The Moon is 401 596 km (249 540 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 036 km (251 678 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♎ Libra at 06:44 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 11 April 2070 at 09:00 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 19 March 2070 at 00:13 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.809° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.755° at the point of next southern standstill on 2 April 2070 at 03:16 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 06:44 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 11 April 2070 at 02:30 in ♈ Aries 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