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

Waning Gibbous in Libra

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 68% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 20 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 17 January 2098 at 10:36.

Wolf Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2098 after 24 days on 15 February 2098 at 21:00.

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 ∠1893"

Lunar disc appears visually 3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1893" and ∠1949".

Lunation 1212 / 2165

The Moon is 20 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1212 of Meeus index or 2165 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.81 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 22 minutes and it is 1 hour and 14 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2098. 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 6 hours and 38 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 25 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠172.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠172.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠197°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 17 January 2098 at 06:41 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 30 January 2098 at 12:32 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 378 743 km

The Moon is 378 743 km (235 340 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 584 km (252 640 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 11 January 2098 at 08:24 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 23 January 2098 at 17:32 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 15 January 2098 at 22:37 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.895° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.941° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 January 2098 at 04:12 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 1 February 2098 at 09:54 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