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

Waxing Gibbous in Gemini

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 66% 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 1 day on 21 February 2048 at 19:22.

Snow Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2048 after 6 days on 29 February 2048 at 14:38.

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 ∠1774"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1774" and ∠1939".

Lunation 595 / 1548

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 595 of Meeus index or 1548 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.58 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 56 minutes and it is 56 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 12 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 51 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠64.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠64.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠100.4°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 21 February 2048 at 18:29 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 5 March 2048 at 02:21 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 404 034 km

The Moon is 404 034 km (251 055 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 10 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 850 km (229 193 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 10 February 2048 at 12:30 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 24 February 2048 at 12:13 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon at northern standstill

At 04:06 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠24.357°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-24.235° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 7 March 2048 at 13:15.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 29 February 2048 at 14:38 in ♍ Virgo 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