You are here: Waning Gibbous, Moon phase of Saturday, December 5th, 2020
Waning Gibbous, Moon phase of Saturday, December 5th, 2020
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Tonight's actual moon phase and image of the moon (Moon phase tonight)
(Actual current moon image from Nasa)
This page shows the image of today's/tonight's actual moon phase and allows you to follow the moon phases or moon cycles as they are also called.
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A waning (shrinking) gibbous moon rises between the sunset and the midnight, and sets after sunrise.
The waning gibbous is the moon phase after the Full Moon. It lasts until half of the Moon's surface is illuminated at the phase called Third Quarter or Last Quarter.
In other words, the waning gibbous starts with a moon illumination of 99.9% and reduces down to 50.1%.
This phase took the name "gibbous" because of the shape of the illuminated (visible) part of the moon which is greater than a semicircle and less than a circle.
This transition lasts about a week, which is approximately the 1/4 of the moon period.
Days Until Next Full Moon
25 days
Days Until Next New Moon
10 days
Percentage of Illumination
76.3%
Interactive moon phases tool
Ready to explore other moon phases? This tool shows the current moon phase and allows you to shift the phases and see how the moon is illuminated at each phase.
Credit: NASA
Diagram explaining the moon phases
This diagram shows the relative positions of the Sun, the Moon and earth and explains how the different moon phases appear.
The visible part of the moon is the part of the moon's surface that gets hit by the sunlight. The rest of the moon disc is almost invisible.
The moon phases are not caused by the shadow of the earth on to the moon. It is the moon's own shadow at the part of its surface that is not hit by the sunlight.
In other words, the visible "sunny" part is made of the places where there is "day" on the moon and the shadow part is where there is "night".
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.