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

Waxing Gibbous in Capricorn

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 78% 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 in ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 25 August 2020 at 17:58.

Harvest Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2020 after 4 days on 2 September 2020 at 05:22.

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 ∠1893"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1893" and ∠1900".

Lunation 255 / 1208

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 255 of Meeus index or 1208 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 19 minutes and it is 12 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2020. 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 4 hours and 26 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 44 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠322.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠322.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠341.2°.

Moon after perigee

7 days since point of perigee on 21 August 2020 at 10:59 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 September 2020 at 06:31 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 378 574 km

The Moon is 378 574 km (235 235 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 606 km (252 032 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 27 August 2020 at 11:52 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 10 September 2020 at 23:05 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon at southern standstill

At 14:06 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-24.219°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠24.353° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 12 September 2020 at 05:25.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 2 September 2020 at 05:22 in ♓ Pisces 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