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

Waning Gibbous in Libra

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 96% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 16 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠9° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 4 March 2053 at 17:09.

Worm Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2053 after 27 days on 3 April 2053 at 06:22.

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 ∠1851"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1851" and ∠1933".

Lunation 657 / 1610

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 657 of Meeus index or 1610 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.61 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes and it is 3 hours and 3 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 56 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 7 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠251.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠251.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠288°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 28 February 2053 at 20:20 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 March 2053 at 21:51 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 387 284 km

The Moon is 387 284 km (240 647 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 382 km (251 271 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 5 March 2053 at 12:51 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 19 March 2053 at 23:33 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 27 February 2053 at 13:41 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.174° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.150° at the point of next southern standstill on 13 March 2053 at 04:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 20 March 2053 at 07:11 in ♈ Aries 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