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

Waning Gibbous in Cancer

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 95% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 17 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 4 December 2055 at 05:40.

Cold Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2056 after 27 days on 2 January 2056 at 22:05.

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 ∠1854"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1854" and ∠1948".

Lunation 691 / 1644

The Moon is 17 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 691 of Meeus index or 1644 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 41 minutes and it is 2 hours and 14 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 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠24.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠24.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠45.5°.

Moon after apogee

7 days since point of apogee on 29 November 2055 at 09:39 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 December 2055 at 10:52 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 386 520 km

The Moon is 386 520 km (240 172 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 611 km (227 180 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 23 November 2055 at 14:19 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 8 December 2055 at 02:26 in ♌ Leo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 12:59 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠21.161°. This is the year's northernmost lunar standstill of 2055. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-21.183° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 19 December 2055 at 10:14.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 18 December 2055 at 08:15 in ♐ Sagittarius 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