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

Waxing Gibbous in Aries

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 77% 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠24° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 11 December 2051 at 00:07.

Cold Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2051 after 4 days on 17 December 2051 at 16:05.

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 ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1949".

Lunation 642 / 1595

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 642 of Meeus index or 1595 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.73 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 29 minutes and it is 2 hours and 4 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 45 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠214.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠214.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠248.4°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 29 November 2051 at 23:42 in ♎ Libra 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 15 December 2051 at 19:57 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 363 720 km

The Moon is 363 720 km (226 005 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 745 km (224 778 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♈ Aries at 08:09 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 26 December 2051 at 10:39 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 4 December 2051 at 11:27 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.781° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.789° at the point of next northern standstill on 17 December 2051 at 14:21 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 17 December 2051 at 16:05 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