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

Waning Gibbous in Taurus

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 98% 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 12 October 2011 at 02:06.

Hunter Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2011 after 28 days on 10 November 2011 at 20:16.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1923".

Lunation 145 / 1098

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 145 of Meeus index or 1098 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 47 minutes and it is 1 hour and 27 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 57 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 12 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠350.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠350.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠5.3°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 12 October 2011 at 11:43 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 26 October 2011 at 12:26 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 404 969 km

The Moon is 404 969 km (251 636 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 051 km (221 861 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 2 October 2011 at 09:09 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 16 October 2011 at 21:01 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 2 October 2011 at 11:38 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.791° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.665° at the point of next northern standstill on 17 October 2011 at 02:06 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 26 October 2011 at 19:56 in ♎ Libra 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