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

Waxing Gibbous in Cancer

Waxing Gibbous today: . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 72% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 9 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 17 March 2024 at 04:11.

Worm Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2024 after 5 days on 25 March 2024 at 07:00.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide today. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1807"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1807" and ∠1927".

Lunation 299 / 1252

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 299 of Meeus index or 1252 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.39 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 20 minutes and it is 19 minutes longer 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 3 hours and 24 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 45 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠1.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠1.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠17.2°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 10 March 2024 at 07:06 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 23 March 2024 at 15:44 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 396 580 km

The Moon is 396 580 km (246 423 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 292 km (252 458 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 12 March 2024 at 01:18 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 26 March 2024 at 04:07 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 17 March 2024 at 14:45 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.526° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.559° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 April 2024 at 08:58 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 25 March 2024 at 07:00 in ♎ Libra 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