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

Waxing Gibbous in Libra

Waxing Gibbous on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 91% 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 in ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after First Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the First Quarter before 4 days on 8 May 2098 at 04:21.

Flower Moon after 2 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2098 after 2 days on 15 May 2098 at 07:16.

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 ∠1901"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1901" and ∠1899".

Lunation 1216 / 2169

The Moon is 12 days young and navigating from the first to the middle part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1216 of Meeus index or 2169 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 51 minutes and it is 2 hours and 8 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 2 hours and 53 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 16 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠294.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠294.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠320.4°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 6 May 2098 at 02:31 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 21 May 2098 at 09:03 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 377 018 km

The Moon is 377 018 km (234 268 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 550 km (251 376 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♎ Libra at 22:21 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 May 2098 at 09:11 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 5 May 2098 at 02:37 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.285° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.237° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 May 2098 at 09:52 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 15 May 2098 at 07:16 in ♏ Scorpio 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