Waxing
Gibbous ♉ Taurus
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
Waxing Gibbous 69% illuminated
Waxing Gibbous is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 69% and growing larger. The 9 days young Moon is in ♈ Aries.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Moon phase and lunation details
1 day after First Quarter
Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 1 day on 19 December 2023 at 18:39.
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.
Moon in ♈ Aries
Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1945"
Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1945" and ∠1951".
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.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Cancer ♋ on 27 December 2023 at 00:33
- Last Quarter in Libra ♎ on 4 January 2024 at 03:30
- New Moon in Capricorn ♑ on 11 January 2024 at 11:57
- First Quarter in Aries ♈ on 18 January 2024 at 03:53
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.
Lunation 296 / 1249
The Moon is 9 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the first to the middle part of current synodic month. This is lunation 296 of Meeus index or 1249 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.52 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 25 minutes. It is 1 hour and 23 minutes longer than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decreasing with the 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 position on
True anomaly ∠303.6°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠303.6°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠328°.
Moon after perigee
4 days after 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 to meet descending node 14 days later on 4 January 2024 at 18:52 in ♎ Libra.
New draconic month
At 13:54 the Moon completes the previous draconic month and enters the new one.
Moon before northern standstill
7 days since the previous 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.
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.
