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 92% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 12 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 is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 20 March 2078 at 16:10.

Worm Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2078 after 2 days on 28 March 2078 at 11:04.

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 ∠1810"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1810" and ∠1923".

Lunation 967 / 1920

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 967 of Meeus index or 1920 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.38 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 7 minutes and it is 55 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 3 hours and 37 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 32 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠340.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠340.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠356.5°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 15 March 2078 at 04:04 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 30 March 2078 at 08:45 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 396 087 km

The Moon is 396 087 km (246 117 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 125 km (252 354 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 17 March 2078 at 20:05 in ♉ Taurus 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 31 March 2078 at 23:35 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 21 March 2078 at 05:45 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.910° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.019° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 April 2078 at 23:12 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 28 March 2078 at 11:04 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