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

Waxing Gibbous in Cancer

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 88% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 11 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 passing about ∠21° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 16 February 2005 at 00:16.

Snow Moon after 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2005 after 3 days on 24 February 2005 at 04:54.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1940".

Lunation 63 / 1016

The Moon is 11 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 63 of Meeus index or 1016 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 42 minutes and it is 40 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠17.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠17.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠36.2°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 04:59 about 12 days since last perigee on 7 February 2005 at 22:09 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 8 March 2005 at 03:42 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 405 806 km

This apogee Moon is 405 806 km (252 156 mi) away from Earth. It is 398 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 903 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

7 days after ascending node on 13 February 2005 at 10:25 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 28 February 2005 at 00:10 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 19 February 2005 at 01:13 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.152° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.257° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 March 2005 at 04:40 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 3 days

In 3 days on 24 February 2005 at 04:54 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