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

Waning Gibbous in Taurus

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 96% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 16 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠25° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 23 October 2056 at 11:46.

Hunter Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2056 after 27 days on 22 November 2056 at 06:12.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1930".

Lunation 702 / 1655

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 702 of Meeus index or 1655 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.39 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 20 minutes and it is 50 minutes shorter 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 3 hours and 24 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 45 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠337.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠337.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠353.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 20:58 about 15 days since last perigee on 10 October 2056 at 11:04 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 13 days until point of next perigee on 7 November 2056 at 20:56 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 406 235 km

This apogee Moon is 406 235 km (252 423 mi) away from Earth. It is 827 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 474 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 15 October 2056 at 06:24 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 29 October 2056 at 17:10 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 14 October 2056 at 21:56 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.495° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.641° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 October 2056 at 11:13 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

22 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 13 days

In 13 days on 7 November 2056 at 12:20 in ♏ Scorpio 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