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

Waxing Gibbous in Gemini

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 65% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 9 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises in the afternoon and sets after midnight to early morning. It is visible to the southeast in early evening and it is up for most of the night.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 1 day on 17 February 2013 at 20:31.

Snow Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2013 after 6 days on 25 February 2013 at 20:26.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1941".

Lunation 162 / 1115

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 162 of Meeus index or 1115 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 31 minutes and it is 1 hour and 13 minutes 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 13 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 56 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠44.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠44.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠73.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 06:30 about 11 days since last perigee on 7 February 2013 at 12:09 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next perigee on 5 March 2013 at 23:20 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 404 475 km

This apogee Moon is 404 475 km (251 329 mi) away from Earth. It is 933 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 234 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 17 February 2013 at 02:57 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 3 March 2013 at 02:30 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon at northern standstill

At 13:35 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠20.583°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-20.453° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 5 March 2013 at 06:41.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 25 February 2013 at 20:26 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is going to be in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Earth-Moon 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