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

Waxing Gibbous in Gemini

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 96% 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♋ Cancer later.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 5 January 2028 at 01:40.

Wolf Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2028 after 1 day on 12 January 2028 at 04:03.

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 ∠1927"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1927" and ∠1951".

Lunation 346 / 1299

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 346 of Meeus index or 1299 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 25 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 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 ∠132.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠132.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠161.9°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 1 January 2028 at 03:52 in ♒ Aquarius 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 13 January 2028 at 07:47 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 371 946 km

The Moon is 371 946 km (231 117 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 046 km (223 101 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 30 December 2027 at 00:51 in ♒ Aquarius 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 12 January 2028 at 21:27 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon at northern standstill

At 02:36 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠26.604°. This is the year's northernmost lunar standstill of 2028. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-26.616° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 22 January 2028 at 21:35.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 12 January 2028 at 04:03 in ♋ Cancer 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