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 97% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 16 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 passing about ∠20° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 16 February 2003 at 23:51.

Snow Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2003 after 27 days on 18 March 2003 at 10:34.

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 ∠1947"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1947" and ∠1941".

Lunation 38 / 991

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 38 of Meeus index or 991 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 47 minutes and it is 57 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 3 hours and 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠90.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠90.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠127.8°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 7 February 2003 at 21:58 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 February 2003 at 16:19 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 368 146 km

The Moon is 368 146 km (228 755 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 844 km (226 704 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 10 February 2003 at 17:39 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 23 February 2003 at 15:47 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 13 February 2003 at 10:59 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.923° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.015° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 February 2003 at 05:53 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 3 March 2003 at 02:35 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