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 93% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 17 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Full Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the Full Moon before 2 days on 7 December 2071 at 06:57.

Cold Moon before 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2072 after 27 days on 5 January 2072 at 18:13.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1965"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1965" and ∠1948".

Lunation 889 / 1842

The Moon is 17 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 at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 10:47 about 11 days since last apogee on 27 November 2071 at 16:12 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next apogee on 25 December 2071 at 10:25 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 362 998 km

This perigee Moon is 362 998 km (225 556 mi) away from Earth. It is 490 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 7 358 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 1 December 2071 at 07:18 in ♓ Pisces 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 14 December 2071 at 01:42 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 8 December 2071 at 10:00 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.456° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.491° at the point of next southern standstill on 21 December 2071 at 16:34 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

22 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 11 days

In 11 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