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

Waxing Gibbous in Cancer

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 80% 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 3 days on 28 February 2004 at 03:24.

Worm Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2004 after 4 days on 6 March 2004 at 23:14.

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 ∠1787"

Lunar disc appears visually 8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1787" and ∠1936".

Lunation 51 / 1004

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 51 of Meeus index or 1004 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.56 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 24 minutes and it is 1 hour and 16 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 40 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 23 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠59.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠59.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠93.6°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 28 February 2004 at 10:45 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 12 March 2004 at 03:37 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 401 012 km

The Moon is 401 012 km (249 177 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 511 km (229 603 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 26 February 2004 at 00:15 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 10 March 2004 at 23:05 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 1 March 2004 at 11:47 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.341° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.445° at the point of next southern standstill on 14 March 2004 at 19:20 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 6 March 2004 at 23:14 in ♍ Virgo 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