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

Waxing Gibbous in Gemini

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 98% 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 in ♊ Gemini

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♋ Cancer later.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 29 December 2071 at 17:16.

Wolf Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2072 after 1 day on 5 January 2072 at 18:13.

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 ∠1941"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1941" and ∠1951".

Lunation 890 / 1843

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 890 of Meeus index or 1843 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 48 minutes and it is 41 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 6 hours and 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠138.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠138.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠166.3°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 25 December 2071 at 10:25 in ♒ Aquarius 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 6 January 2072 at 17:46 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 369 304 km

The Moon is 369 304 km (229 475 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 353 km (222 670 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 28 December 2071 at 08:59 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 10 January 2072 at 03:26 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 21:58 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.460°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.436° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 18 January 2072 at 00:05.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 5 January 2072 at 18:13 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