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 73% 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 passing about ∠7° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 5 days on 18 March 2068 at 22:56.

Worm Moon before 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2068 after 24 days on 17 April 2068 at 15:29.

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 ∠1865"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1865" and ∠1924".

Lunation 843 / 1796

The Moon is 20 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 843 of Meeus index or 1796 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.38 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 14 minutes and it is 2 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2068. 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 30 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 39 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠3.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠3.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠19.9°.

Moon after apogee

7 days since point of apogee on 16 March 2068 at 22:03 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 April 2068 at 04:33 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 384 400 km

The Moon is 384 400 km (238 855 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 256 km (223 231 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 05:33 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next descending node later on 5 April 2068 at 19:21 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 10 March 2068 at 14:54 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.781° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-21.636° at the point of next southern standstill on 25 March 2068 at 09:16 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 05:33 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 2 April 2068 at 08:51 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