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

Waxing Gibbous in Sagittarius

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 83% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 11 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠9° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 3 days on 17 July 2021 at 10:11.

Buck Moon after 3 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2021 after 3 days on 24 July 2021 at 02:37.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1888".

Lunation 266 / 1219

The Moon is 11 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 266 of Meeus index or 1219 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 34 minutes and it is 1 hour and 32 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 11 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 59 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠230.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠230.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠264.3°.

Moon before perigee

14 days since point of apogee on 5 July 2021 at 14:48 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 21 July 2021 at 10:30 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 363 550 km

The Moon is 363 550 km (225 899 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 520 km (226 502 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 13:22 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 3 August 2021 at 02:51 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 9 July 2021 at 10:05 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.622° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.643° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 July 2021 at 15:11 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 24 July 2021 at 02:37 in ♒ Aquarius 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