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

Waning Gibbous in Cancer

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 98% 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 in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 16 December 2081 at 04:31.

Cold Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2082 after 28 days on 14 January 2082 at 18:11.

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 ∠1895"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1895" and ∠1950".

Lunation 1013 / 1966

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1013 of Meeus index or 1966 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.58 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes and it is 2 hours and 26 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 1 hour and 8 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 55 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠52.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠52.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠84.8°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 9 December 2081 at 00:48 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 22 December 2081 at 10:49 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 378 223 km

The Moon is 378 223 km (235 017 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 370 264 km (230 071 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 7 December 2081 at 17:00 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 21 December 2081 at 12:04 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 16 December 2081 at 08:03 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.126° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.138° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 December 2081 at 05:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 30 December 2081 at 04:28 in ♑ Capricorn 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