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

Waxing Gibbous in Aries

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 97% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 13 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠6° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 11 October 2013 at 23:02.

Hunter Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2013 after 1 day on 18 October 2013 at 23:38.

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 ∠1885"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1885" and ∠1926".

Lunation 170 / 1123

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 170 of Meeus index or 1123 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.51 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 15 minutes and it is 43 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 29 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 40 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠285.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠285.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠315°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 10 October 2013 at 23:06 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 25 October 2013 at 14:25 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 380 323 km

The Moon is 380 323 km (236 322 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 561 km (251 383 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 6 October 2013 at 22:08 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 19 October 2013 at 21:47 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 9 October 2013 at 23:52 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.537° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.509° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 October 2013 at 09:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 18 October 2013 at 23:38 in ♈ Aries 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