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

Waning Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 92% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 17 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 is entering ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 16 May 2003 at 03:36.

Flower Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2003 after 26 days on 14 June 2003 at 11:16.

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 ∠1939"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1939" and ∠1897".

Lunation 41 / 994

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 41 of Meeus index or 994 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 5 minutes and it is 1 hour and 46 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 3 hours and 21 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 42 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠181.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠181.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠205.5°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 15 May 2003 at 15:39 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 28 May 2003 at 13:05 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 369 740 km

The Moon is 369 740 km (229 746 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 171 km (252 383 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 16 May 2003 at 10:51 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 May 2003 at 08:33 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 6 May 2003 at 09:48 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.496° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-26.503° at the point of next southern standstill on 19 May 2003 at 03:13 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 31 May 2003 at 04:20 in ♊ Gemini 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