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 86% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 18 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 ∠13° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 4 days on 14 January 2006 at 09:48.

Wolf Moon before 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2006 after 25 days on 13 February 2006 at 04:44.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1950".

Lunation 74 / 1027

The Moon is 18 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 74 of Meeus index or 1027 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 3 minutes and it is 47 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 41 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 28 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠329.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠329.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠347.5°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 17 January 2006 at 19:07 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 January 2006 at 07:47 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 938 km

The Moon is 404 938 km (251 617 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 781 km (222 315 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 6 January 2006 at 05:01 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 20 January 2006 at 12:06 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 12 January 2006 at 13:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.410° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.492° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 January 2006 at 00:14 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

12 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 11 days

In 11 days on 29 January 2006 at 14:15 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