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 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♒ Aquarius later.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 7 November 2018 at 16:02.

Beaver Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2018 after 9 days on 23 November 2018 at 05:39.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1939".

Lunation 233 / 1186

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 233 of Meeus index or 1186 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 18 minutes and it is 2 hours and 50 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 34 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 29 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠79.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠79.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠116.6°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 31 October 2018 at 20:05 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 day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 14 November 2018 at 15:57 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 911 km

The Moon is 404 911 km (251 600 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 341 km (251 246 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♑ Capricorn at 14:04 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 27 November 2018 at 05:18 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 12 November 2018 at 02:21 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.401° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.485° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 November 2018 at 01:48 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 23 November 2018 at 05:39 in ♊ Gemini 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