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

Waxing Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 74% 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 5 August 2003 at 07:28.

Sturgeon Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2003 after 4 days on 12 August 2003 at 04:48.

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 ∠1964"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1964" and ∠1892".

Lunation 44 / 997

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 44 of Meeus index or 997 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 34 minutes and it is 51 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 10 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 59 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠268.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠268.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠301°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 6 August 2003 at 14:06 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 19 August 2003 at 14:22 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 364 984 km

The Moon is 364 984 km (226 791 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 102 km (251 097 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 6 August 2003 at 06:49 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 19 August 2003 at 21:08 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 27 July 2003 at 03:55 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.493° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-26.553° at the point of next southern standstill on 9 August 2003 at 06:19 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 12 August 2003 at 04:48 in ♒ Aquarius 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