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 94% 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 ∠21° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 12 December 2019 at 05:12.

Cold Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2020 after 27 days on 10 January 2020 at 19:21.

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 ∠1914"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1914" and ∠1949".

Lunation 246 / 1199

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 246 of Meeus index or 1199 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.59 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 8 minutes and it is 2 hours and 21 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 23 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 39 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠50.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠50.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠82.6°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 5 December 2019 at 04:09 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 18 December 2019 at 20:30 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 374 431 km

The Moon is 374 431 km (232 661 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 370 260 km (230 069 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 13 December 2019 at 14:15 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 26 December 2019 at 13:01 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 13 December 2019 at 20:57 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.226° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-23.227° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 December 2019 at 20:11 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 26 December 2019 at 05:13 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