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

Waning Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 96% 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 25 April 2070 at 09:31.

Pink Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2070 after 27 days on 25 May 2070 at 01:37.

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 7.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1906".

Lunation 869 / 1822

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 869 of Meeus index or 1822 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 38 minutes and it is 1 hour and 22 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 4 hours and 6 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 3 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠333.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠333.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠350.2°.

Moon before apogee

14 days since point of perigee on 12 April 2070 at 16:43 in ♉ Taurus 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 28 April 2070 at 06:11 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 405 426 km

The Moon is 405 426 km (251 920 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 893 km (252 210 mi).

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 24 April 2070 at 13:41 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 May 2070 at 19:39 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 15 April 2070 at 06:43 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.748° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-18.761° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 April 2070 at 10:16 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

2 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 10 May 2070 at 11:08 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