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

Waning Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 67% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 20 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♑ Capricorn later.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 31 March 2056 at 10:25.

Worm Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2056 after 24 days on 29 April 2056 at 18:31.

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 ∠1932"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1932" and ∠1917".

Lunation 695 / 1648

The Moon is 20 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 695 of Meeus index or 1648 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 58 minutes and it is 42 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2056. 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 4 hours and 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠147°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠147° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠172.8°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 1 April 2056 at 03:57 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 15 April 2056 at 19:35 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 370 951 km

The Moon is 370 951 km (230 498 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 631 km (252 669 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 26 March 2056 at 07:57 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 7 April 2056 at 18:26 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 25 March 2056 at 00:14 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.456° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-21.566° at the point of next southern standstill on 6 April 2056 at 13:41 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 14 April 2056 at 23:50 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