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

Waxing Gibbous in Gemini

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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 23 December 2085 at 17:42.

Cold Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2085 after 1 day on 30 December 2085 at 23:59.

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 ∠1855"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1855" and ∠1951".

Lunation 1063 / 2016

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1063 of Meeus index or 2016 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 46 minutes and it is 1 hour and 43 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 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 7 hours and 1 minute shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠305°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠305° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠329.2°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 20 December 2085 at 14:38 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 5 January 2086 at 12:32 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 386 486 km

The Moon is 386 486 km (240 151 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 066 km (251 696 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♊ Gemini at 15:40 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 13 January 2086 at 03:23 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon at northern standstill

At 07:22 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠23.313°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-23.281° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 12 January 2086 at 20:13.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 30 December 2085 at 23:59 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