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

Waxing Gibbous in Cancer

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 90% 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

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

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 24 January 2056 at 20:21.

Snow Moon after 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2056 after 3 days on 1 February 2056 at 12:36.

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 ∠1830"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1830" and ∠1948".

Lunation 693 / 1646

The Moon is 11 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 693 of Meeus index or 1646 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 49 minutes and it is 1 hour and 4 minutes shorter 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 5 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 58 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠75.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠75.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠113.6°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 24 January 2056 at 02:22 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 4 February 2056 at 23:51 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 391 726 km

The Moon is 391 726 km (243 407 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 040 km (228 068 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 17 January 2056 at 06:04 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 31 January 2056 at 16:41 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 15 January 2056 at 19:49 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.177° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠21.178° at the point of next northern standstill on 30 January 2056 at 06:21 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 1 February 2056 at 12:36 in ♌ Leo 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