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

Waxing Gibbous in Libra

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 78% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 10 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 2 days on 24 May 2053 at 18:04.

Strawberry Moon after 4 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2053 after 4 days on 1 June 2053 at 11:02.

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 ∠1863"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1863" and ∠1893".

Lunation 660 / 1613

The Moon is 10 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 660 of Meeus index or 1613 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.3 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 8 minutes and it is 33 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 5 hours and 36 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 33 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠336.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠336.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠352.3°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 19 May 2053 at 14:01 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 3 June 2053 at 22:38 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 384 820 km

The Moon is 384 820 km (239 116 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 060 km (252 314 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 26 May 2053 at 04:22 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 9 June 2053 at 18:30 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 20 May 2053 at 10:17 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.416° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.483° at the point of next southern standstill on 3 June 2053 at 04:36 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 1 June 2053 at 11:02 in ♐ Sagittarius 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