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

Waxing Crescent in Taurus

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 37% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 6 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 10 February 2013 at 07:20.

Snow Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2013 after 9 days on 25 February 2013 at 20:26.

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 ∠1786"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1786" and ∠1942".

Lunation 162 / 1115

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 162 of Meeus index or 1115 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 31 minutes and it is 1 hour and 13 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 13 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 56 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠44.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠44.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠73.6°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 7 February 2013 at 12:09 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 19 February 2013 at 06:30 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 401 327 km

The Moon is 401 327 km (249 373 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 475 km (251 329 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 4 February 2013 at 02:14 in ♏ Scorpio 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 17 February 2013 at 02:57 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 6 February 2013 at 00:27 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.704° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.583° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 February 2013 at 13:35 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 25 February 2013 at 20:26 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