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 83% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 11 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 3 days on 13 May 2046 at 10:25.

Flower Moon after 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2046 after 3 days on 20 May 2046 at 03:15.

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 ∠1969"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1969" and ∠1897".

Lunation 573 / 1526

The Moon is 11 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 573 of Meeus index or 1526 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 26 minutes and it is 2 hours and 10 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 18 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 51 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠239.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠239.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠274°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 23:31 about 15 days since last apogee on 1 May 2046 at 03:41 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 28 May 2046 at 21:55 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 365 910 km

This perigee Moon is 365 910 km (227 366 mi) away from Earth. It is 3 402 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 4 446 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 12 May 2046 at 07:55 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 25 May 2046 at 04:58 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 8 May 2046 at 23:01 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.750° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.705° at the point of next southern standstill on 21 May 2046 at 18:34 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 20 May 2046 at 03:15 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