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 ∠12° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 6 days on 10 March 2068 at 19:26.

Worm Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2068 after 1 day on 18 March 2068 at 22:56.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1928".

Lunation 843 / 1796

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 843 of Meeus index or 1796 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.38 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 14 minutes and it is 2 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2068. 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 3 hours and 30 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 39 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠3.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠3.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠19.9°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 16 March 2068 at 22:03 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 April 2068 at 04:33 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 405 473 km

The Moon is 405 473 km (251 949 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 256 km (223 231 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 9 March 2068 at 14:23 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 24 March 2068 at 05:33 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 10 March 2068 at 14:54 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.781° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.636° at the point of next southern standstill on 25 March 2068 at 09:16 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 18 March 2068 at 22:56 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