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

Waxing Crescent in Libra

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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 31 August 2027 at 17:41.

Harvest Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2027 after 13 days on 15 September 2027 at 23:04.

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 ∠1929"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1929" and ∠1902".

Lunation 342 / 1295

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 342 of Meeus index or 1295 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 55 minutes and it is 2 hours and 5 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 3 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 20 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠18.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠18.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠36.7°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 30 August 2027 at 15:36 in ♌ Leo 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 11 September 2027 at 23:39 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 371 491 km

The Moon is 371 491 km (230 834 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 384 km (251 894 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 29 August 2027 at 23:01 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 12 September 2027 at 11:26 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 26 August 2027 at 14:14 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.172° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.122° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 September 2027 at 08:57 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

17 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 15 September 2027 at 23:04 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