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

Waning Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 88% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 18 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 3 days on 30 April 2018 at 00:58.

Pink Moon before 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2018 after 26 days on 29 May 2018 at 14:20.

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 ∠1779"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1779" and ∠1903".

Lunation 226 / 1179

The Moon is 18 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 226 of Meeus index or 1179 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 51 minutes and it is 1 hour and 56 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 2 hours and 53 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 16 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠296.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠296.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠321.7°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 20 April 2018 at 14:44 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 May 2018 at 00:35 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 402 895 km

The Moon is 402 895 km (250 347 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 458 km (251 319 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 23 April 2018 at 12:19 in ♌ Leo 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 7 May 2018 at 10:24 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 21 April 2018 at 07:38 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.445° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-20.562° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 May 2018 at 23:00 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 15 May 2018 at 11:48 in ♉ Taurus 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