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

Waning Gibbous in Virgo

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 66% 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 in ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 14 December 2016 at 00:06.

Cold Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2017 after 23 days on 12 January 2017 at 11:34.

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 ∠1843"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1843" and ∠1950".

Lunation 209 / 1162

The Moon is 20 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 209 of Meeus index or 1162 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.77 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes and it is 1 hour and 21 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 5 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠194.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠194.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠223.4°.

Moon before apogee

6 days since point of perigee on 12 December 2016 at 23:27 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 25 December 2016 at 05:55 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 389 020 km

The Moon is 389 020 km (241 726 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 870 km (252 196 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♍ Virgo at 04:46 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 2 January 2017 at 18:14 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 14 December 2016 at 21:43 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.937° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.958° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 December 2016 at 03:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

New draconic month

At 04:46 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 29 December 2016 at 06:53 in ♑ Capricorn 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