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

Waxing Crescent in Capricorn

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 1% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 is entering ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 11 December 2015 at 10:29.

Cold Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2015 after 12 days on 25 December 2015 at 11:11.

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 ∠1853"

Lunar disc appears visually 5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1853" and ∠1949".

Lunation 197 / 1150

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 197 of Meeus index or 1150 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 1 minute and it is 1 hour and 53 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 17 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 46 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠255.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠255.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠292.2°.

Moon after apogee

6 days since point of apogee on 5 December 2015 at 14:56 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 21 December 2015 at 08:53 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 386 788 km

The Moon is 386 788 km (240 339 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 418 km (228 924 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 4 December 2015 at 18:33 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 18 December 2015 at 15:13 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 08:15 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-18.438°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠18.444° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 25 December 2015 at 07:30.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 25 December 2015 at 11:11 in ♋ Cancer 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