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

Waxing Gibbous in Aries

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 94% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 12 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 18 October 2072 at 20:37.

Hunter Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2072 after 2 days on 27 October 2072 at 01:21.

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 ∠1773"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1773" and ∠1930".

Lunation 900 / 1853

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 900 of Meeus index or 1853 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 26 minutes and it is 2 hours and 12 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 2 hours and 18 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 51 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠21.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠21.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠41.4°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 22 October 2072 at 14:16 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 7 November 2072 at 14:09 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 404 354 km

The Moon is 404 354 km (251 254 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 640 km (226 577 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 22 October 2072 at 09:49 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 5 November 2072 at 06:42 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after southern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 17 October 2072 at 04:56 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.728° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.845° at the point of next northern standstill on 31 October 2072 at 19:37 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

15 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 2 days

In 2 days on 27 October 2072 at 01:21 in ♉ Taurus 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