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 98% 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 3 April 2053 at 06:22.

Pink Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2053 after 28 days on 2 May 2053 at 20:25.

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 ∠1820"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1820" and ∠1918".

Lunation 658 / 1611

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 658 of Meeus index or 1611 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 37 minutes and it is 2 hours and 42 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 7 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 2 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠288°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠288° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠316.1°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 25 March 2053 at 21:13 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 9 April 2053 at 17:46 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 393 770 km

The Moon is 393 770 km (244 677 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 471 km (251 327 mi).

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 1 April 2053 at 21:29 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 16 April 2053 at 08:30 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 26 March 2053 at 19:19 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.163° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.204° at the point of next southern standstill on 9 April 2053 at 12:44 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

2 days 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 14 days

In 14 days on 18 April 2053 at 18:48 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