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

Waning Gibbous in Scorpio

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 92% 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠9° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 23 March 2016 at 12:01.

Worm Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2016 after 26 days on 22 April 2016 at 05:24.

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 ∠1771"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1771" and ∠1923".

Lunation 200 / 1153

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 200 of Meeus index or 1153 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 29 minutes and it is 1 hour and 23 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 3 hours and 15 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 54 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠339.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠339.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠355.6°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 25 March 2016 at 14:16 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 7 April 2016 at 17:36 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 404 803 km

The Moon is 404 803 km (251 533 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 164 km (221 931 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 22 March 2016 at 12:59 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 5 April 2016 at 17:27 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 16 March 2016 at 05:01 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.206° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.239° at the point of next southern standstill on 30 March 2016 at 22:12 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

3 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 7 April 2016 at 11:24 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