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 96% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 13 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 ∠23° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 6 days on 2 December 2011 at 09:52.

Cold Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2011 after 2 days on 10 December 2011 at 14:36.

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 ∠1776"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1776" and ∠1948".

Lunation 147 / 1100

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 147 of Meeus index or 1100 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.5 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 57 minutes and it is 1 hour and 36 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 47 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 22 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠21.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠21.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠42.1°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 6 December 2011 at 01:13 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 22 December 2011 at 02:56 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 403 500 km

The Moon is 403 500 km (250 723 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 801 km (226 677 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 26 November 2011 at 01:02 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 10 December 2011 at 07:04 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 26 November 2011 at 06:47 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.552° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.554° at the point of next northern standstill on 10 December 2011 at 13:37 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 10 December 2011 at 14:36 in ♊ Gemini 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