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 97% 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 is entering ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 7 December 2016 at 09:03.

Cold Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2016 after 1 day on 14 December 2016 at 00:06.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1949".

Lunation 209 / 1162

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 209 of Meeus index or 1162 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.77 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes and it is 1 hour and 21 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 5 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠194.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠194.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠223.4°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 23:27 about 15 days since last apogee on 27 November 2016 at 20:08 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 25 December 2016 at 05:55 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 358 463 km

This perigee Moon is 358 463 km (222 739 mi) away from Earth. It is 4 045 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 11 893 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 6 December 2016 at 17:35 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 19 December 2016 at 04:46 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 1 December 2016 at 19:56 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.908° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.937° at the point of next northern standstill on 14 December 2016 at 21:43 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

20 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 14 December 2016 at 00:06 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