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

Waxing Gibbous in Libra

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 89% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 11 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 3 days on 25 April 2072 at 16:35.

Flower Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2072 after 2 days on 2 May 2072 at 11:34.

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 ∠1955"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1955" and ∠1905".

Lunation 894 / 1847

The Moon is 11 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 894 of Meeus index or 1847 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 22 minutes and it is 2 hours and 43 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 22 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 47 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠250.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠250.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠285°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 28 April 2072 at 15:34 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 10 May 2072 at 17:48 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 366 647 km

The Moon is 366 647 km (227 824 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 155 km (251 130 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 28 April 2072 at 14:06 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 12 May 2072 at 08:23 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 23 April 2072 at 08:04 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.447° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.526° at the point of next southern standstill on 6 May 2072 at 07:01 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 2 May 2072 at 11:34 in ♏ Scorpio 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