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

Waxing Gibbous in Gemini

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 96% 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 5 days on 23 December 2066 at 16:07.

Cold Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2066 after 2 days on 31 December 2066 at 14:41.

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 ∠1785"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1785" and ∠1951".

Lunation 828 / 1781

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 828 of Meeus index or 1781 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 59 minutes and it is 19 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2066. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 45 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 24 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠346.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠346.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠2.4°.

Moon before apogee

3 days since point of perigee on 26 December 2066 at 09:01 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 1 January 2067 at 14:49 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 401 620 km

The Moon is 401 620 km (249 555 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 354 km (252 497 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 17 December 2066 at 07:22 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 30 December 2066 at 17:42 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon at northern standstill

At 18:32 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠23.938°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-23.918° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 13 January 2067 at 00:58.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 31 December 2066 at 14:41 in ♋ Cancer 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