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

Waxing Gibbous in Libra

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 97% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 13 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 6 days on 5 May 2006 at 05:13.

Flower Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2006 after 1 day on 13 May 2006 at 06:51.

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 ∠1801"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1801" and ∠1900".

Lunation 78 / 1031

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 78 of Meeus index or 1031 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 42 minutes and it is 58 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 3 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠38.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠38.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠64.2°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 7 May 2006 at 06:47 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 22 May 2006 at 15:29 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 397 948 km

The Moon is 397 948 km (247 273 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 615 km (229 047 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 9 May 2006 at 08:29 in ♎ Libra 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 22 May 2006 at 18:00 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 1 May 2006 at 16:26 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.616° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.539° at the point of next southern standstill on 16 May 2006 at 03:52 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 13 May 2006 at 06:51 in ♏ Scorpio 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