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 2% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 is entering ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 9 December 2026 at 00:52.

Cold Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2026 after 13 days on 24 December 2026 at 01:28.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1949".

Lunation 333 / 1286

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 333 of Meeus index or 1286 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.81 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 33 minutes and it is 1 minute longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2026. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 48 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 14 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠159.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠159.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠184.3°.

Moon before apogee

14 days since point of perigee on 25 November 2026 at 20:58 in ♊ Gemini 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 11 December 2026 at 06:46 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 405 400 km

The Moon is 405 400 km (251 904 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 421 km (252 538 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 30 November 2026 at 03:34 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 14 December 2026 at 13:04 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 9 December 2026 at 15:27 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.602° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.620° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 December 2026 at 12:33 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 24 December 2026 at 01:28 in ♋ Cancer 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