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

Waxing Gibbous in Libra

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 64% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 9 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 1 day on 3 June 2006 at 23:06.

Strawberry Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2006 after 6 days on 11 June 2006 at 18:03.

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 ∠1772"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1772" and ∠1891".

Lunation 79 / 1032

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 79 of Meeus index or 1032 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes and it is 1 hour and 46 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 4 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 5 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠64.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠64.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠97.5°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 4 June 2006 at 01:41 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 16 June 2006 at 17:07 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 522 km

The Moon is 404 522 km (251 358 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 926 km (229 240 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♎ Libra at 12:10 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 18 June 2006 at 19:11 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 29 May 2006 at 01:13 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.490° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.452° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 June 2006 at 10:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 11 June 2006 at 18:03 in ♐ Sagittarius 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