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 96% 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 in ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 17 July 2040 at 09:16.

Buck Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2040 after 1 day on 24 July 2040 at 02:05.

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 ∠1969"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1969" and ∠1889".

Lunation 501 / 1454

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 501 of Meeus index or 1454 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 12 minutes and it is 25 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2040. 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 2 hours and 28 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 35 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠175.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠175.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠199°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 9 July 2040 at 20:13 in ♋ Cancer 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 23 July 2040 at 19:15 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 363 959 km

The Moon is 363 959 km (226 154 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 113 km (221 900 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 20 July 2040 at 02:18 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 1 August 2040 at 17:44 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon at southern standstill

At 14:28 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-26.179°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠26.211° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 4 August 2040 at 21:26.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 24 July 2040 at 02:05 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