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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 44% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

7 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 7 days on 16 September 2050 at 03:49.

Harvest Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2050 after 7 days on 30 September 2050 at 17:31.

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 ∠1882"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1882" and ∠1913".

Lunation 627 / 1580

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 627 of Meeus index or 1580 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 59 minutes and it is 6 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2050. 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 4 hours and 15 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 48 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠186.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠186.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠212°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 15 September 2050 at 09:55 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 September 2050 at 00:42 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 380 945 km

The Moon is 380 945 km (236 708 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 710 km (222 271 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 20 September 2050 at 06:06 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 3 October 2050 at 00:50 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon at southern standstill

At 06:36 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-19.906°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠19.840° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 5 October 2050 at 19:06.

Draconic month

3 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 30 September 2050 at 17:31 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