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 71% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 20 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 ∠1° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 11 March 2009 at 02:38.

Worm Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2009 after 24 days on 9 April 2009 at 14:56.

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 ∠1789"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1789" and ∠1928".

Lunation 113 / 1066

The Moon is 20 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 113 of Meeus index or 1066 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.6 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 31 minutes and it is 3 hours and 14 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 1 hour and 47 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 16 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠246.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠246.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠282.4°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 7 March 2009 at 15:06 in ♋ Cancer 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 19 March 2009 at 13:16 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 400 751 km

The Moon is 400 751 km (249 015 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 302 km (251 222 mi).

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 8 March 2009 at 04:05 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 22 March 2009 at 02:12 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 4 March 2009 at 21:34 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.987° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-26.896° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 March 2009 at 05:07 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

21 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 10 days

In 10 days on 26 March 2009 at 16:06 in ♓ Pisces 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