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

Waning Gibbous in Virgo

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 99% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 15 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 27 February 2059 at 10:06.

Snow Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2059 after 28 days on 29 March 2059 at 03:47.

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 ∠1774"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1774" and ∠1937".

Lunation 731 / 1684

The Moon is 15 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 731 of Meeus index or 1684 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 38 minutes and it is 15 minutes longer 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 3 hours and 6 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 3 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠357°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠357° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠12.4°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 26 February 2059 at 13:16 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 13 March 2059 at 06:38 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 404 043 km

The Moon is 404 043 km (251 061 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 773 km (222 310 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 19 February 2059 at 09:15 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 6 March 2059 at 00:53 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 22 February 2059 at 09:40 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.179° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.323° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 March 2059 at 23:34 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 14 March 2059 at 00:05 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