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

Waxing Crescent in Virgo

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 6% 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 2 August 2046 at 10:25.

Sturgeon Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2046 after 12 days on 16 August 2046 at 14:50.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1891".

Lunation 576 / 1529

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 576 of Meeus index or 1529 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 1 minute and it is longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2046. 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 4 hours and 44 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 25 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠328°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠328° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠345.8°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 09:16 about 11 days since last apogee on 23 July 2046 at 10:37 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next apogee on 20 August 2046 at 01:53 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 362 170 km

This perigee Moon is 362 170 km (225 042 mi) away from Earth. It is 338 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 8 186 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 2 August 2046 at 00:47 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 15 August 2046 at 00:43 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 29 July 2046 at 22:44 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.730° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.723° at the point of next southern standstill on 11 August 2046 at 15:06 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 16 August 2046 at 14:50 in ♒ Aquarius 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