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

Waxing Gibbous in Aries

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 78% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 10 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠16° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 1 December 2079 at 16:13.

Cold Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2079 after 4 days on 8 December 2079 at 15:16.

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 ∠1892"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1892" and ∠1947".

Lunation 988 / 1941

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 988 of Meeus index or 1941 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.79 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 2 minutes and it is 22 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 18 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 45 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠148.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠148.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠174.6°.

Moon before perigee

7 days since point of apogee on 26 November 2079 at 15:51 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 9 December 2079 at 06:48 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 378 934 km

The Moon is 378 934 km (235 459 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 291 km (222 010 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♈ Aries at 19:50 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next descending node later on 17 December 2079 at 08:14 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 26 November 2079 at 04:46 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.260° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.228° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 December 2079 at 17:56 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 19:50 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 8 December 2079 at 15:16 in ♊ Gemini 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