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 68% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 20 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♑ Capricorn later.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 3 April 2072 at 01:25.

Pink Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2072 after 23 days on 2 May 2072 at 11:34.

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 ∠1813"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1813" and ∠1915".

Lunation 893 / 1846

The Moon is 20 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 893 of Meeus index or 1846 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 35 minutes and it is 3 hours and 13 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠217.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠217.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠250.1°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 1 April 2072 at 01:31 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 April 2072 at 22:33 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 395 270 km

The Moon is 395 270 km (245 609 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 911 km (251 600 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 1 April 2072 at 07:46 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 15 April 2072 at 04:07 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 21:40 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-18.355°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠18.447° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 23 April 2072 at 08:04.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 18 April 2072 at 11:57 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