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 65% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 9 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 1 day on 1 May 2085 at 20:52.

Flower Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2085 after 6 days on 9 May 2085 at 16:04.

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 ∠1771"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1771" and ∠1903".

Lunation 1055 / 2008

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1055 of Meeus index or 2008 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 24 minutes and it is 1 hour and 31 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 1 hour and 20 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 49 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠60.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠60.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠94.1°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 2 May 2085 at 03:39 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 14 May 2085 at 22:34 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 404 618 km

The Moon is 404 618 km (251 418 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 231 km (229 430 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 28 April 2085 at 14:50 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 12 May 2085 at 17:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 27 April 2085 at 11:39 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.188° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.138° at the point of next southern standstill on 11 May 2085 at 18:51 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 9 May 2085 at 16:04 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