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

Waxing Gibbous in Cancer

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 92% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 12 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 17 January 2005 at 06:58.

Wolf Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2005 after 2 days on 25 January 2005 at 10:32.

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 ∠1773"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1773" and ∠1949".

Lunation 62 / 1015

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 62 of Meeus index or 1015 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 25 minutes and it is 17 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2005. 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 19 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 50 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠1.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠1.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠17.1°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 10 January 2005 at 10:07 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 23 January 2005 at 18:54 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 404 354 km

The Moon is 404 354 km (251 254 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 444 km (252 553 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 17 January 2005 at 07:32 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 31 January 2005 at 22:49 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 19:22 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠27.973°. This is the year's northernmost lunar standstill of 2005. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-28.071° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 5 February 2005 at 21:10.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 25 January 2005 at 10:32 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