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

Waxing Gibbous in Aquarius

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 74% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 10 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 24 September 2020 at 01:55.

Hunter Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2020 after 5 days on 1 October 2020 at 21:05.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1858"

Lunar disc appears visually 3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1858" and ∠1914".

Lunation 256 / 1209

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 256 of Meeus index or 1209 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 31 minutes and it is 1 hour and 5 minutes shorter 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 4 hours and 13 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 56 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠341.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠341.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠357°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 18 September 2020 at 13:44 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 3 October 2020 at 17:22 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 385 802 km

The Moon is 385 802 km (239 726 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 321 km (252 476 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 23 September 2020 at 12:33 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 8 October 2020 at 00:29 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 24 September 2020 at 19:11 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.458° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠24.613° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 October 2020 at 13:07 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 1 October 2020 at 21:05 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