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

Waxing Gibbous in Taurus

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 81% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 10 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 in ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 22 December 2077 at 13:56.

Cold Moon after 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2077 after 3 days on 29 December 2077 at 10:45.

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 ∠1962"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1962" and ∠1951".

Lunation 964 / 1917

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 964 of Meeus index or 1917 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 8 minutes and it is 2 hours and 23 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 2 hours and 24 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 39 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠258.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠258.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠294.9°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 02:40 about 15 days since last apogee on 9 December 2077 at 10:56 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 11 days until point of next apogee on 6 January 2078 at 08:03 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 368 754 km

This perigee Moon is 368 754 km (229 133 mi) away from Earth. It is 6 246 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 1 602 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 13 December 2077 at 09:35 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 December 2077 at 14:03 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 16 December 2077 at 13:36 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.467° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.449° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 December 2077 at 11:30 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

26 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 29 December 2077 at 10:45 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