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

Waxing Gibbous in Aries

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 89% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 11 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 3 days on 11 November 2051 at 13:07.

Beaver Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2051 after 2 days on 18 November 2051 at 05:06.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1940".

Lunation 641 / 1594

The Moon is 11 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 641 of Meeus index or 1594 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 38 minutes and it is 1 hour and 9 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2051. 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 5 hours and 54 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 9 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠187.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠187.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠214.3°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 2 November 2051 at 17:22 in ♎ Libra 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 17 November 2051 at 10:55 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 364 233 km

The Moon is 364 233 km (226 324 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 776 km (222 312 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 2 November 2051 at 03:14 in ♎ Libra 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 16 November 2051 at 01:34 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 7 November 2051 at 04:46 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.703° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.736° at the point of next northern standstill on 20 November 2051 at 02:16 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 18 November 2051 at 05:06 in ♉ Taurus 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