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

Waxing Crescent in Scorpio

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 6% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 2 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 15 October 2012 at 12:02.

Hunter Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2012 after 12 days on 29 October 2012 at 19:50.

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 ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1926".

Lunation 158 / 1111

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 158 of Meeus index or 1111 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.42 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 5 minutes and it is 29 minutes shorter 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 39 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 30 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠334.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠334.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠351.3°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 01:02 about 12 days since last apogee on 5 October 2012 at 00:43 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next apogee on 1 November 2012 at 15:30 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 360 673 km

This perigee Moon is 360 673 km (224 112 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 835 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 9 683 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♏ Scorpio at 18:27 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 31 October 2012 at 10:36 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 6 October 2012 at 01:40 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.024° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-20.964° at the point of next southern standstill on 19 October 2012 at 06:49 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 18:27 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 12 days

In 12 days on 29 October 2012 at 19:50 in ♉ Taurus 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