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

Waxing Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 74% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 10 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 is entering ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 26 July 2012 at 08:56.

Sturgeon Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2012 after 4 days on 2 August 2012 at 03:27.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1890".

Lunation 155 / 1108

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 155 of Meeus index or 1108 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 30 minutes and it is 1 hour and 14 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 14 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 55 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠248.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠248.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠283.7°.

Moon before perigee

14 days since point of apogee on 13 July 2012 at 16:47 in ♉ Taurus 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 29 July 2012 at 08:30 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 363 565 km

The Moon is 363 565 km (225 909 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 318 km (228 241 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 10:34 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 11 August 2012 at 00:04 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 16 July 2012 at 01:18 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.665° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-21.592° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 July 2012 at 12:11 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 10:34 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 2 August 2012 at 03:27 in ♒ Aquarius 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