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

Waxing Gibbous in Taurus

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 in ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 19 November 2015 at 06:27.

Beaver Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2015 after 1 day on 25 November 2015 at 22:44.

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 ∠1957"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1957" and ∠1944".

Lunation 196 / 1149

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 196 of Meeus index or 1149 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 42 minutes and it is 1 hour and 41 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 58 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 5 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠220.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠220.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠255.6°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 23 November 2015 at 20:06 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 5 December 2015 at 14:56 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 366 288 km

The Moon is 366 288 km (227 601 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 800 km (251 531 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 21 November 2015 at 13:56 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 4 December 2015 at 18:33 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 15 November 2015 at 00:39 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.331° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.384° at the point of next northern standstill on 27 November 2015 at 20:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 25 November 2015 at 22:44 in ♉ Taurus 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