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

Waxing Crescent in Libra

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

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

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 leaving the last ∠1° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 24 September 2014 at 06:14.

Hunter Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2014 after 11 days on 8 October 2014 at 10:51.

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 ∠1828"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1828" and ∠1914".

Lunation 182 / 1135

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 182 of Meeus index or 1135 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 43 minutes and it is 1 hour and 7 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 59 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 4 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠218.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠218.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠252.3°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 20 September 2014 at 14:22 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 October 2014 at 09:41 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 392 150 km

The Moon is 392 150 km (243 671 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 481 km (225 235 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 25 September 2014 at 17:41 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 October 2014 at 17:44 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 16 September 2014 at 05:15 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.579° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.528° at the point of next southern standstill on 30 September 2014 at 19:29 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 8 October 2014 at 10:51 in ♈ Aries 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