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

Waxing Gibbous in Taurus

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 91% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 12 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠24° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 17 December 2007 at 10:17.

Cold Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2007 after 2 days on 24 December 2007 at 01:16.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1951".

Lunation 98 / 1051

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 98 of Meeus index or 1051 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 57 minutes and it is 1 hour and 50 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 50 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠209.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠209.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠242.4°.

Moon before perigee

14 days since point of apogee on 6 December 2007 at 16:54 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 22 December 2007 at 10:11 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 363 427 km

The Moon is 363 427 km (225 823 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 817 km (224 201 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 15 December 2007 at 13:15 in ♒ Aquarius 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 28 December 2007 at 02:57 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 10 December 2007 at 09:41 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.906° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.918° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 December 2007 at 14:26 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 24 December 2007 at 01:16 in ♋ Cancer 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