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 93% 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 ∠2° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 12 February 2019 at 22:26.

Snow Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2019 after 2 days on 19 February 2019 at 15:53.

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 ∠1965"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1965" and ∠1942".

Lunation 236 / 1189

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 236 of Meeus index or 1189 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.79 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 1 minute and it is 2 hours and 13 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 16 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 47 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠175.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠175.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠200.2°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 5 February 2019 at 09:26 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 February 2019 at 09:06 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 364 844 km

The Moon is 364 844 km (226 704 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 762 km (221 682 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♋ Cancer at 09:42 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next descending node later on 2 March 2019 at 11:03 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 16 February 2019 at 09:56 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.590° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.642° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 March 2019 at 06:23 in ♑ Capricorn.

New draconic month

At 09:42 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 19 February 2019 at 15:53 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