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 96% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 13 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 6 days on 9 April 2068 at 11:33.

Pink Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2068 after 2 days on 17 April 2068 at 15:29.

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 ∠1774"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1774" and ∠1912".

Lunation 844 / 1797

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 844 of Meeus index or 1797 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.39 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 16 minutes and it is 40 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 3 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠19.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠19.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠39.5°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 13 April 2068 at 09:52 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 29 April 2068 at 06:56 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 404 060 km

The Moon is 404 060 km (251 071 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 942 km (226 143 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 5 April 2068 at 19:21 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 April 2068 at 08:25 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 6 April 2068 at 22:58 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.553° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.479° at the point of next southern standstill on 21 April 2068 at 14:15 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 17 April 2068 at 15:29 in ♎ Libra 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