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

Waxing Gibbous in Cancer

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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 6 days on 3 January 2085 at 00:47.

Wolf Moon after 1 day

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2085 after 1 day on 10 January 2085 at 22:42.

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 ∠1780"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1780" and ∠1951".

Lunation 1051 / 2004

The Moon is 13 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1051 of Meeus index or 2004 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 1 minute and it is 34 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2085. 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 44 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 25 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠345.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠345.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠0.9°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 28 December 2084 at 05:57 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 January 2085 at 05:03 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 402 700 km

The Moon is 402 700 km (250 226 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 331 km (252 482 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 27 December 2084 at 16:18 in ♑ Capricorn 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 10 January 2085 at 01:55 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 8 January 2085 at 06:01 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.917° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.889° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 January 2085 at 16:49 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 10 January 2085 at 22:42 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