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

Waxing Gibbous in Virgo

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 86% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 11 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 7 April 2014 at 08:31.

Pink Moon after 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2014 after 3 days on 15 April 2014 at 07:42.

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 ∠1784"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1784" and ∠1914".

Lunation 176 / 1129

The Moon is 11 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 176 of Meeus index or 1129 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 56 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 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 ∠46.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠46.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠76.9°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 8 April 2014 at 14:52 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 23 April 2014 at 00:27 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 401 813 km

The Moon is 401 813 km (249 675 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 765 km (229 761 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 1 April 2014 at 02:30 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 15 April 2014 at 13:22 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 5 April 2014 at 07:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.957° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.946° at the point of next southern standstill on 19 April 2014 at 12:55 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 15 April 2014 at 07:42 in ♎ Libra 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