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

Waning Gibbous in Aquarius

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 97% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 16 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 24 July 2040 at 02:05.

Buck Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2040 after 27 days on 22 August 2040 at 09:09.

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 ∠1960"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1960" and ∠1889".

Lunation 501 / 1454

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 501 of Meeus index or 1454 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 12 minutes and it is 25 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2040. 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 2 hours and 28 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 35 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠175.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠175.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠199°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 23 July 2040 at 19:15 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 5 August 2040 at 23:43 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 365 690 km

The Moon is 365 690 km (227 229 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 353 km (252 496 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 20 July 2040 at 02:18 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 1 August 2040 at 17:44 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 22 July 2040 at 14:28 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.179° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.211° at the point of next northern standstill on 4 August 2040 at 21:26 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

19 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 8 August 2040 at 00:26 in ♌ Leo 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