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 4% 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 passing about ∠12° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 9 September 2018 at 18:01.

Harvest Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2018 after 13 days on 25 September 2018 at 02:53.

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 ∠1908"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1908" and ∠1906".

Lunation 231 / 1184

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 231 of Meeus index or 1184 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 45 minutes and it is 2 hours and 30 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 2 hours and 59 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 10 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠28°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠28° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠49.6°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 8 September 2018 at 01:21 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 20 September 2018 at 00:54 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 375 604 km

The Moon is 375 604 km (233 390 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 875 km (251 578 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 6 September 2018 at 22:42 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 20 September 2018 at 09:30 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 5 September 2018 at 06:56 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.837° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.909° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 September 2018 at 09:35 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

4 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 25 September 2018 at 02:53 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