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

Waning Gibbous in Virgo

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 84% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 18 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♎ Libra later.

3 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 25 January 2081 at 04:01.

Wolf Moon before 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2081 after 26 days on 23 February 2081 at 14:27.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1957"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1957" and ∠1948".

Lunation 1002 / 1955

The Moon is 18 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1002 of Meeus index or 1955 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 15 minutes and it is 15 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2081. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠151.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠151.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠177.5°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 25 January 2081 at 17:17 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 9 February 2081 at 03:24 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 366 277 km

The Moon is 366 277 km (227 594 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 582 km (252 638 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♍ Virgo at 10:41 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 11 February 2081 at 16:49 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 22 January 2081 at 17:53 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.501° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.557° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 February 2081 at 13:10 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 8 February 2081 at 20:17 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