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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 35% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 6 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 is entering ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 7 September 2021 at 00:52.

Harvest Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2021 after 8 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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1907".

Lunation 268 / 1221

The Moon is 6 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 after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 11 September 2021 at 10:05 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 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 September 2021 at 21:44 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 363 348 km

The Moon is 363 348 km (225 774 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 14 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 641 km (251 432 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♏ Scorpio at 16:35 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 26 September 2021 at 07:33 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before southern standstill

10 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 2 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

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 8 days

In 8 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