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 90% 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 19 February 2021 at 18:47.

Snow Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2021 after 2 days on 27 February 2021 at 08:17.

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 ∠1846"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1846" and ∠1938".

Lunation 261 / 1214

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 261 of Meeus index or 1214 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes and it is 55 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠87°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠87° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠124.3°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 18 February 2021 at 10:22 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 2 March 2021 at 05:19 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 388 351 km

The Moon is 388 351 km (241 310 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 422 km (227 063 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 21 February 2021 at 01:44 in ♊ Gemini 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 6 March 2021 at 00:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 23 February 2021 at 00:12 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.056° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.161° at the point of next southern standstill on 7 March 2021 at 20:45 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 27 February 2021 at 08:17 in ♍ Virgo 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