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 9% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 3 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 14 September 2042 at 08:50.

Harvest Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2042 after 11 days on 29 September 2042 at 10:34.

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 7.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1909".

Lunation 528 / 1481

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 528 of Meeus index or 1481 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.72 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 13 minutes and it is 1 hour and 12 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 29 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 34 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠152.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠152.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠177.1°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 04:21 about 15 days since last perigee on 1 September 2042 at 15:49 in ♓ Pisces 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 29 September 2042 at 23:50 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 406 154 km

This apogee Moon is 406 154 km (252 372 mi) away from Earth. It is 746 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 555 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 16 September 2042 at 13:51 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 September 2042 at 04:41 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 8 September 2042 at 03:00 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.396° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.465° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 September 2042 at 20:02 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 29 September 2042 at 10:34 in ♈ Aries 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