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 81% 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 31 December 2068 at 13:23.

Wolf Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2069 after 4 days on 7 January 2069 at 13:43.

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 ∠1948"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1948" and ∠1951".

Lunation 853 / 1806

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 853 of Meeus index or 1806 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.58 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes and it is 2 hours and 11 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 1 hour and 8 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 55 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠279.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠279.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠310.8°.

Moon before perigee

16 days since point of apogee on 17 December 2068 at 15:04 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 14 January 2069 at 12:33 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 368 041 km

The Moon is 368 041 km (228 690 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 393 km (251 278 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♉ Taurus at 11:40 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 17 January 2069 at 13:49 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 23 December 2068 at 11:18 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.663° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠20.637° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 January 2069 at 11:24 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 7 January 2069 at 13:43 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