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 63% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 21 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 ∠20° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 6 days on 18 March 2068 at 22:56.

Worm Moon before 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2068 after 23 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 ∠1888"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1888" and ∠1923".

Lunation 843 / 1796

The Moon is 21 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 before perigee

8 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 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 April 2068 at 04:33 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 379 625 km

The Moon is 379 625 km (235 888 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 256 km (223 231 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 24 March 2068 at 05:33 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 5 April 2068 at 19:21 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon at southern standstill

At 09:16 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-21.636°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠21.553° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 6 April 2068 at 22:58.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 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