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

Waning Gibbous in Aries

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 61% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 21 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 23 July 2051 at 16:36.

Buck Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2051 after 23 days on 22 August 2051 at 01:35.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1890".

Lunation 637 / 1590

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 637 of Meeus index or 1590 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 56 minutes and it is 2 hours and 32 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 48 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 21 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠70.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠70.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠104.1°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 28 July 2051 at 00:46 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 August 2051 at 11:22 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 363 301 km

The Moon is 363 301 km (225 745 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 13 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 639 km (251 431 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♈ Aries at 18:33 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 12 August 2051 at 11:44 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 20 July 2051 at 20:52 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.133° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.057° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 August 2051 at 19:38 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 6 August 2051 at 15:05 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