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 77% 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 28 April 2099 at 01:36.

Flower Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2099 after 4 days on 4 May 2099 at 17:58.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1904".

Lunation 1228 / 2181

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1228 of Meeus index or 2181 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.57 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 47 minutes and it is 2 hours and 53 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 1 hour and 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠227.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠227.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠261.4°.

Moon before perigee

14 days since point of apogee on 16 April 2099 at 08:34 in ♓ Pisces 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 2 May 2099 at 05:55 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 363 310 km

The Moon is 363 310 km (225 750 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 037 km (226 202 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 18 April 2099 at 13:19 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 2 May 2099 at 00:59 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 25 April 2099 at 08:16 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.599° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.539° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 May 2099 at 02:14 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 4 May 2099 at 17:58 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