Waxing
Gibbous ♊ Gemini
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
Waxing Gibbous 81% illuminated
Waxing Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 81% and growing larger. The 10 days young Moon is in ♉ Taurus.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Moon phase and lunation details
3 days after First Quarter
Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 3 days on 4 January 2009 at 11:56.
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.
Moon in ♉ Taurus
Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1956"
Lunar disc appears visually 0.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1956" and ∠1951".
Wolf Moon after 3 days
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2009 after 3 days on 11 January 2009 at 03:27.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Cancer ♋ on 11 January 2009 at 03:27
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 18 January 2009 at 02:46
- New Moon in Aquarius ♒ on 26 January 2009 at 07:55
- First Quarter in Taurus ♉ on 2 February 2009 at 23:13
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.
Lunation 111 / 1064
The Moon is 10 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the first to the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 111 of Meeus index or 1064 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.81 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 33 minutes. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2009. It is 1 hour and 53 minutes longer than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decreasing with the 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 6 hours and 49 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 14 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠186.6°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠186.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠213.2°.
Moon before apogee
11 days after point of apogee on 26 December 2008 at 17:50 in ♐ Sagittarius. The lunar orbit is getting narrow, while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 January 2009 at 10:52 in ♋ Cancer.
Distance to Moon 366 427 km
The Moon is 366 427 km (227 687 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 501 km (222 141 mi).
Moon before descending node
8 days after ascending node on 30 December 2008 at 07:40 in ♒ Aquarius. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 12 January 2009 at 08:34 in ♌ Leo.
Draconic month
8 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♒ Aquarius, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.
Moon before northern standstill
12 days since the previous standstill on 26 December 2008 at 08:03 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.026°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠27.060° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 January 2009 at 05:38 in ♊ Gemini.
Syzygy in 3 days
In 3 days on 11 January 2009 at 03:27 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.
