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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 31% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 5 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 17 September 2001 at 10:27.

Hunter Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2001 after 10 days on 2 October 2001 at 13:49.

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 ∠1864"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1864" and ∠1912".

Lunation 21 / 974

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 21 of Meeus index or 974 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 56 minutes and it is 2 hours and 21 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 3 hours and 48 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 21 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠13.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠13.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠30.5°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 16 September 2001 at 15:50 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 29 September 2001 at 05:33 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 384 510 km

The Moon is 384 510 km (238 923 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 791 km (252 147 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 11 September 2001 at 21:36 in ♊ Gemini 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 24 September 2001 at 10:28 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 12 September 2001 at 12:19 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.677° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-23.780° at the point of next southern standstill on 25 September 2001 at 05:14 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 2 October 2001 at 13:49 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