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

Waning Gibbous in Cancer

Waning Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 98% 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 1 day on 7 December 2071 at 06:57.

Cold Moon before 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2072 after 28 days on 5 January 2072 at 18:13.

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 ∠1952"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1952" and ∠1948".

Lunation 889 / 1842

The Moon is 16 days old and navigating from the middle to the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 889 of Meeus index or 1842 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 47 minutes and it is 2 hours and 1 minute shorter 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠102.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠102.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠138.1°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 27 November 2071 at 16:12 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 9 December 2071 at 10:47 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 367 245 km

The Moon is 367 245 km (228 195 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 998 km (225 556 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 1 December 2071 at 07:18 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 14 December 2071 at 01:42 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 10:00 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.456°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.491° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 21 December 2071 at 16:34.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 21 December 2071 at 11:47 in ♐ Sagittarius 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