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

Waxing Gibbous in Gemini

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 97% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 13 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 9 December 2013 at 15:12.

Cold Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2013 after 1 day on 17 December 2013 at 09:28.

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 ∠1801"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1801" and ∠1950".

Lunation 172 / 1125

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 172 of Meeus index or 1125 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 52 minutes and it is 28 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2013. 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 52 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 17 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠336.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠336.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠353°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 4 December 2013 at 10:15 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 19 December 2013 at 23:49 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 397 961 km

The Moon is 397 961 km (247 282 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 269 km (252 444 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 13 December 2013 at 10:10 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 December 2013 at 00:21 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 3 December 2013 at 16:38 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.552° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠19.570° at the point of next northern standstill on 17 December 2013 at 01:00 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 17 December 2013 at 09:28 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