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

Waxing Gibbous in Taurus

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 69% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 9 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠9° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 3 January 2066 at 09:56.

Wolf Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2066 after 6 days on 11 January 2066 at 15:07.

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 ∠1782"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1782" and ∠1951".

Lunation 816 / 1769

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 816 of Meeus index or 1769 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 47 minutes and it is 49 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 57 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 12 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠16.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠16.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠35.6°.

Moon before perigee

25 days since point of apogee on 11 December 2065 at 06:28 in ♊ Gemini 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 7 January 2066 at 15:46 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 402 309 km

The Moon is 402 309 km (249 983 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 716 km (252 100 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 28 December 2065 at 03:31 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 11 January 2066 at 07:55 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 26 December 2065 at 06:50 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.485° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.491° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 January 2066 at 23:20 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

8 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 11 January 2066 at 15:07 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