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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 7% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 3 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♑ Capricorn later.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 15 November 2020 at 05:07.

Beaver Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2020 after 12 days on 30 November 2020 at 09:30.

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 ∠1931"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1931" and ∠1941".

Lunation 258 / 1211

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 258 of Meeus index or 1211 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 9 minutes and it is 1 hour and 35 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 1 hour and 35 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 34 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠12.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠12.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠30.1°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 14 November 2020 at 11:48 in ♏ Scorpio 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 27 November 2020 at 00:29 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 371 209 km

The Moon is 371 209 km (230 659 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 891 km (252 209 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 00:07 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 1 December 2020 at 07:46 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 5 November 2020 at 19:30 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.813° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-24.856° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 November 2020 at 11:27 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 30 November 2020 at 09:30 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