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

Waning Gibbous in Taurus

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 77% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 19 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

4 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 4 days on 20 September 2051 at 10:11.

Harvest Moon before 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2051 after 25 days on 19 October 2051 at 19:13.

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 ∠1960"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1960" and ∠1913".

Lunation 639 / 1592

The Moon is 19 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 639 of Meeus index or 1592 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.68 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 14 minutes and it is 1 hour and 58 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 3 hours and 29 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 33 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠137°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠137° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠163.9°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 21 September 2051 at 12:20 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 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 October 2051 at 15:34 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 365 774 km

The Moon is 365 774 km (227 281 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 415 km (252 535 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 22 September 2051 at 03:59 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 5 October 2051 at 20:55 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 13 September 2051 at 15:30 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.758° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠18.704° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 September 2051 at 07:36 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 4 October 2051 at 20:47 in ♎ Libra 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