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 79% 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 in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 22 September 2023 at 19:32.

Harvest Moon after 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2023 after 3 days on 29 September 2023 at 09:57.

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 ∠1967"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1967" and ∠1913".

Lunation 293 / 1246

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 293 of Meeus index or 1246 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.68 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 15 minutes and it is 43 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2023. 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 3 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠202.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠202.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠232.5°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 12 September 2023 at 15:42 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 September 2023 at 01:05 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 364 486 km

The Moon is 364 486 km (226 481 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 911 km (223 638 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 17 September 2023 at 19:18 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 September 2023 at 16:49 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 23 September 2023 at 03:42 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.254° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.294° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 October 2023 at 20:31 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

22 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 3 days

In 3 days on 29 September 2023 at 09:57 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