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

Waxing Gibbous in Libra

Waxing Gibbous on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 95% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 12 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 12 April 2057 at 04:59.

Pink Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2057 after 1 day on 19 April 2057 at 10:49.

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 ∠1901"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1901" and ∠1911".

Lunation 708 / 1661

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 708 of Meeus index or 1661 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 1 minute and it is 38 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 2 hours and 17 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 46 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠117°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠117° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠148.6°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 9 April 2057 at 05:48 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 21 April 2057 at 04:54 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 377 111 km

The Moon is 377 111 km (234 326 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 376 km (224 549 mi).

Moon before descending node

6 days after ascending node on 10 April 2057 at 19:48 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 23 April 2057 at 20:52 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 11 April 2057 at 06:46 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.399° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-23.505° at the point of next southern standstill on 24 April 2057 at 07:56 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 19 April 2057 at 10:49 in ♎ Libra 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