New Delhi, Aug. 21 -- 48 in the afternoon and does not set until 27 minutes past midnight. Twenty-four hours ago it was gone by 11:41 pm, and the night before that by 11:03. The moon phase today, August 21, 2026, is a Waxing Gibbous, roughly 63 percent illuminated and nine days into the cycle that opened with the total solar eclipse of August 12.

That midnight crossing is the real marker of the gibbous phase, more than any number. The moon has passed the halfway point of its cycle and now owns the second half of the night as well as the first. It is also, as of tomorrow morning, as far from Earth as it will get all month.

The illumination figure moves the whole way through the day, from about 58 percent at midnight UTC to just over 67 p...