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

Waxing Gibbous in Virgo

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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 8 March 2063 at 01:06.

Worm Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2063 after 1 day on 14 March 2063 at 16:14.

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 ∠1966"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1966" and ∠1930".

Lunation 781 / 1734

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 781 of Meeus index or 1734 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.72 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 12 minutes and it is 3 hours and 10 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 28 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 35 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠204.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠204.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠234.9°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 05:45 about 15 days since last apogee on 25 February 2063 at 16:30 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 11 days until point of next apogee on 25 March 2063 at 07:06 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 360 132 km

This perigee Moon is 360 132 km (223 776 mi) away from Earth. It is 2 376 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 10 224 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♍ Virgo at 22:26 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 27 March 2063 at 21:01 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 8 March 2063 at 17:58 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.509° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.488° at the point of next southern standstill on 21 March 2063 at 12:26 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 14 March 2063 at 16:14 in ♍ Virgo 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