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

Waxing Gibbous in Libra

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 93% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 12 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 16 April 2043 at 10:09.

Pink Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2043 after 2 days on 24 April 2043 at 07:23.

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 ∠1797"

Lunar disc appears visually 6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1797" and ∠1909".

Lunation 535 / 1488

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 535 of Meeus index or 1488 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.34 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 15 minutes and it is 1 hour and 1 minute longer 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 29 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 40 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠345.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠345.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠0.5°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 10 April 2043 at 16:14 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 25 April 2043 at 12:50 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 398 879 km

The Moon is 398 879 km (247 852 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 255 km (252 435 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 9 April 2043 at 01:17 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 22 April 2043 at 04:12 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 14 April 2043 at 15:23 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.638° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.582° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 April 2043 at 03:33 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 24 April 2043 at 07:23 in ♏ Scorpio 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