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 5% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 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 passing about ∠16° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 9 December 2026 at 00:52.

Cold Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2026 after 12 days on 24 December 2026 at 01:28.

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 ∠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 2 days 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 at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 06:46 about 15 days since last perigee on 25 November 2026 at 20:58 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 24 December 2026 at 08:30 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 406 421 km

This apogee Moon is 406 421 km (252 538 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's farthest apogee of 2026. It is 1 013 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 288 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 30 November 2026 at 03:34 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 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 12 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

24 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 12 days

In 12 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