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

Waxing Gibbous in Virgo

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 95% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 12 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 is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 15 March 2046 at 17:13.

Worm Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2046 after 1 day on 22 March 2046 at 09:27.

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 ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1926".

Lunation 571 / 1524

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 571 of Meeus index or 1524 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.73 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 36 minutes and it is 2 hours 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 52 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 11 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠184.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠184.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠209.1°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 7 March 2046 at 06:49 in ♓ Pisces 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 March 2046 at 18:59 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 363 605 km

The Moon is 363 605 km (225 934 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 400 km (222 078 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 19 March 2046 at 03:00 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 1 April 2046 at 00:32 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 15 March 2046 at 12:23 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.160° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.076° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 March 2046 at 00:39 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 22 March 2046 at 09:27 in ♎ Libra 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