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 24% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 5 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 ∠18° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 7 September 2021 at 00:52.

Harvest Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2021 after 9 days on 20 September 2021 at 23:55.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1906".

Lunation 268 / 1221

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 268 of Meeus index or 1221 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes and it is 5 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 shorter than mean

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

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠297.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠297.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠323.3°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 10:05 about 12 days since last apogee on 30 August 2021 at 02:22 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 26 September 2021 at 21:44 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 368 464 km

This perigee Moon is 368 464 km (228 953 mi) away from Earth. It is 5 956 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 1 892 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 30 August 2021 at 05:13 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 12 September 2021 at 16:35 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 2 September 2021 at 00:23 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.868° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.980° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 September 2021 at 03:48 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 20 September 2021 at 23:55 in ♓ Pisces 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