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

Waning Gibbous in Libra

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 97% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 16 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 21 March 2008 at 18:40.

Worm Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2008 after 27 days on 20 April 2008 at 10:25.

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 ∠1787"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1787" and ∠1925".

Lunation 101 / 1054

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 101 of Meeus index or 1054 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 41 minutes and it is 2 hours and 18 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 2 hours and 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠310.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠310.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠332.7°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 10 March 2008 at 21:39 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 March 2008 at 20:13 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 401 161 km

The Moon is 401 161 km (249 270 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 094 km (251 714 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 19 March 2008 at 02:53 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 2 April 2008 at 15:18 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 14 March 2008 at 11:33 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.985° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.898° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 March 2008 at 16:00 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 6 April 2008 at 03:55 in ♈ Aries 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