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

Waxing Crescent in Aquarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 6% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 2 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 8 January 2054 at 22:34.

Wolf Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2054 after 12 days on 23 January 2054 at 20:08.

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 ∠1772"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1772" and ∠1951".

Lunation 668 / 1621

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 668 of Meeus index or 1621 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.82 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 40 minutes and it is 1 hour and 8 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2054. 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 56 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 7 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠168.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠168.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠193.2°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 10 January 2054 at 05:56 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 23 January 2054 at 19:38 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 404 524 km

The Moon is 404 524 km (251 360 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 512 km (221 526 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 29 December 2053 at 18:29 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 January 2054 at 02:36 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 7 January 2054 at 19:44 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.772° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.720° at the point of next northern standstill on 21 January 2054 at 23:45 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 23 January 2054 at 20:08 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