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

Waning Gibbous in Cancer

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 93% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 17 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 28 November 2012 at 14:46.

Beaver Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2012 after 26 days on 28 December 2012 at 10:21.

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 ∠1783"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1783" and ∠1946".

Lunation 159 / 1112

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 159 of Meeus index or 1112 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 34 minutes and it is 28 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 2 hours and 10 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 59 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠351.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠351.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠6.8°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 28 November 2012 at 19:35 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 12 December 2012 at 23:14 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 402 052 km

The Moon is 402 052 km (249 824 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 074 km (221 875 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 27 November 2012 at 17:05 in ♉ Taurus 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 11 December 2012 at 15:57 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 29 November 2012 at 14:33 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.924° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.926° at the point of next southern standstill on 13 December 2012 at 03:48 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 13 December 2012 at 08:42 in ♐ Sagittarius 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