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 96% 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 6 March 2099 at 22:59.

Worm Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2099 after 27 days on 5 April 2099 at 08:37.

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 ∠1959"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1959" and ∠1933".

Lunation 1226 / 2179

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1226 of Meeus index or 2179 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 41 minutes and it is 1 hour and 58 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 5 hours and 57 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 6 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠175.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠175.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠199.5°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 6 March 2099 at 16:59 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 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 19 March 2099 at 19:55 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 365 838 km

The Moon is 365 838 km (227 321 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 404 km (252 528 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♎ Libra at 04:56 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 22 March 2099 at 06:44 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 1 March 2099 at 19:54 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.627° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.667° at the point of next southern standstill on 14 March 2099 at 09:20 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 21 March 2099 at 22:46 in ♓ Pisces 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