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

Waxing Gibbous in Aquarius

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 98% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 13 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 17 August 2048 at 00:32.

Sturgeon Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2048 after 1 day on 23 August 2048 at 18:07.

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 ∠1934"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1934" and ∠1898".

Lunation 601 / 1554

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 601 of Meeus index or 1554 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 26 minutes and it is 1 hour and 5 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 18 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 51 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠240.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠240.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠276°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 20 August 2048 at 12:34 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 1 September 2048 at 10:48 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 370 536 km

The Moon is 370 536 km (230 240 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 235 km (251 180 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 19 August 2048 at 04:55 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 1 September 2048 at 16:14 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 18 August 2048 at 16:40 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-23.557° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠23.449° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 September 2048 at 03:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

3 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 23 August 2048 at 18:07 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