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 77% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 19 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 4 days on 24 December 2007 at 01:16.

Cold Moon before 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2008 after 25 days on 22 January 2008 at 13:35.

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 ∠1844"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1844" and ∠1951".

Lunation 98 / 1051

The Moon is 19 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 98 of Meeus index or 1051 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 57 minutes and it is 1 hour and 50 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 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 50 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠209.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠209.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠242.4°.

Moon before apogee

6 days since point of perigee on 22 December 2007 at 10:11 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 3 January 2008 at 08:06 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 388 746 km

The Moon is 388 746 km (241 556 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 328 km (251 859 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♌ Leo at 02:57 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 11 January 2008 at 15:17 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 23 December 2007 at 14:26 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.918° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.939° at the point of next southern standstill on 6 January 2008 at 15:50 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 8 January 2008 at 11:37 in ♑ Capricorn 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