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

Waxing Gibbous in Cancer

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 94% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 12 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

The 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.

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 6 February 2014 at 19:22.

Snow Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2014 after 2 days on 14 February 2014 at 23:53.

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 9.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1943".

Lunation 174 / 1127

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 174 of Meeus index or 1127 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 21 minutes and it is 24 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2014. 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 2 hours and 23 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 46 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠8.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠8.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠25.1°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 05:09 about 12 days since last perigee on 30 January 2014 at 09:58 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 27 February 2014 at 19:52 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 406 232 km

This apogee Moon is 406 232 km (252 421 mi) away from Earth. It is 824 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 477 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 5 February 2014 at 12:41 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 February 2014 at 03:28 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 9 February 2014 at 15:21 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.306° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.175° at the point of next southern standstill on 24 February 2014 at 01:24 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

19 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 2 days

In 2 days on 14 February 2014 at 23:53 in ♌ Leo 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