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

Waning Gibbous in Aquarius

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 60% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠17° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 6 days on 13 May 2006 at 06:51.

Flower Moon before 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2006 after 23 days on 11 June 2006 at 18:03.

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 ∠1962"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1962" and ∠1896".

Lunation 78 / 1031

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 78 of Meeus index or 1031 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 42 minutes and it is 58 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠38.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠38.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠64.2°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 7 May 2006 at 06:47 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 22 May 2006 at 15:29 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 365 324 km

The Moon is 365 324 km (227 002 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 615 km (229 047 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 9 May 2006 at 08:29 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 22 May 2006 at 18:00 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 16 May 2006 at 03:52 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.539° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.490° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 May 2006 at 01:13 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 27 May 2006 at 05:26 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