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

Waxing Gibbous in Virgo

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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 16 March 2073 at 22:44.

Worm Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2073 after 1 day on 23 March 2073 at 17:17.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1925".

Lunation 905 / 1858

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 905 of Meeus index or 1858 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 58 minutes and it is 1 hour and 57 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 5 hours and 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠168.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠168.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠192.2°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 10 March 2073 at 03:57 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 23 March 2073 at 16:57 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 364 169 km

The Moon is 364 169 km (226 284 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 721 km (221 656 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 21 March 2073 at 12:15 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 3 April 2073 at 11:42 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 17 March 2073 at 17:57 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.057° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.120° at the point of next southern standstill on 30 March 2073 at 05:47 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 1 day

In 1 day on 23 March 2073 at 17:17 in ♍ Virgo 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