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

Waxing Gibbous in Cancer

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 96% 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 9 January 2052 at 09:27.

Wolf Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2052 after 1 day on 16 January 2052 at 04:24.

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 ∠1934"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1934" and ∠1951".

Lunation 643 / 1596

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 643 of Meeus index or 1596 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 25 minutes and it is 2 hours and 19 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 2 hours and 41 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 22 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠248.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠248.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠285.5°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 12 January 2052 at 14:41 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 24 January 2052 at 12:51 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 370 558 km

The Moon is 370 558 km (230 254 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 327 km (251 237 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 9 January 2052 at 09:32 in ♈ Aries 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 22 January 2052 at 12:23 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 01:12 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.725°. This is the year's northernmost lunar standstill of 2052. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.646° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 28 January 2052 at 05:17.

Draconic month

19 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 1 day

In 1 day on 16 January 2052 at 04:24 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