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

Waxing Gibbous in Aries

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 71% 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 is entering ♈ Aries

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 1 day on 29 November 2052 at 12:16.

Cold Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2052 after 4 days on 6 December 2052 at 07:18.

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 ∠1903"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1903" and ∠1946".

Lunation 654 / 1607

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 654 of Meeus index or 1607 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 13 minutes and it is 16 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2052. 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 6 hours and 29 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 34 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠165.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠165.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠190.2°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 22 November 2052 at 23:40 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 December 2052 at 08:52 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 376 614 km

The Moon is 376 614 km (234 017 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 425 km (221 472 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♈ Aries at 09:24 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 13 December 2052 at 19:44 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 23 November 2052 at 20:41 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.363° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.396° at the point of next northern standstill on 7 December 2052 at 06:12 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 6 December 2052 at 07:18 in ♊ Gemini 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