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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 32% 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 27 September 2011 at 11:09.

Hunter Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2011 after 9 days on 12 October 2011 at 02:06.

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 ∠1927"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1927" and ∠1917".

Lunation 145 / 1098

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 145 of Meeus index or 1098 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 47 minutes and it is 1 hour and 27 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 57 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 12 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠350.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠350.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠5.3°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 28 September 2011 at 01:01 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 October 2011 at 11:43 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 372 008 km

The Moon is 372 008 km (231 155 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 435 km (252 547 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 09:09 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 16 October 2011 at 21:01 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon at southern standstill

At 11:38 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-22.791°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠22.665° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 17 October 2011 at 02:06.

New draconic month

At 09:09 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 12 October 2011 at 02:06 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