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

Waning Gibbous in Gemini

Waning Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 64% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 20 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 6 days on 23 September 2056 at 19:34.

Harvest Moon before 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2056 after 22 days on 23 October 2056 at 11:46.

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 ∠1781"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1781" and ∠1917".

Lunation 701 / 1654

The Moon is 20 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 701 of Meeus index or 1654 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.38 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 13 minutes and it is 7 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2056. 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 3 hours and 31 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 38 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠317.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠317.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠337.6°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 28 September 2056 at 07:58 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 October 2056 at 11:04 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 402 543 km

The Moon is 402 543 km (250 129 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 834 km (223 590 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 18 September 2056 at 05:52 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 2 October 2056 at 15:45 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 17 September 2056 at 16:12 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.234° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠22.376° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 October 2056 at 03:51 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 9 October 2056 at 03:00 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