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

Waxing Gibbous in Taurus

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 98% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 13 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 21 November 2031 at 14:45.

Beaver Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2031 after 1 day on 28 November 2031 at 23:18.

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 ∠1840"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1840" and ∠1945".

Lunation 394 / 1347

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 394 of Meeus index or 1347 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.5 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 56 minutes and it is 55 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 48 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 21 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠312.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠312.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠334.7°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 17 November 2031 at 22:07 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 3 December 2031 at 22:35 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 389 532 km

The Moon is 389 532 km (242 044 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 355 km (251 876 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♉ Taurus at 14:01 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 12 December 2031 at 01:37 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 16 November 2031 at 18:24 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.336° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.350° at the point of next northern standstill on 30 November 2031 at 00:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 28 November 2031 at 23:18 in ♊ Gemini 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