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

Waxing Gibbous in Aries

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 69% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 9 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 1 day on 19 December 2023 at 18:39.

Cold Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2023 after 5 days on 27 December 2023 at 00:33.

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 ∠1945"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1945" and ∠1951".

Lunation 296 / 1249

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 296 of Meeus index or 1249 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 25 minutes and it is 1 hour and 23 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 19 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 50 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠303.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠303.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠328°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 16 December 2023 at 18:53 in ♒ Aquarius 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 1 January 2024 at 15:28 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 368 475 km

The Moon is 368 475 km (228 960 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 911 km (251 600 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♈ Aries at 13:54 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 4 January 2024 at 18:52 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 13 December 2023 at 21:51 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.151° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.131° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 December 2023 at 21:50 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 13:54 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 27 December 2023 at 00:33 in ♋ Cancer 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