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 2% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 ∠5° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 11 August 2056 at 07:48.

Sturgeon Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2056 after 12 days on 25 August 2056 at 06:00.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1903"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1903" and ∠1894".

Lunation 700 / 1653

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 700 of Meeus index or 1653 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.42 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 59 minutes and it is 46 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 2 hours and 45 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 24 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠289.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠289.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠317.3°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 3 August 2056 at 19:11 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 16 August 2056 at 15:34 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 376 605 km

The Moon is 376 605 km (234 011 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 236 km (229 433 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 9 August 2056 at 05:07 in ♋ Cancer 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 22 August 2056 at 03:18 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 8 August 2056 at 11:18 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠22.019° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-22.057° at the point of next southern standstill on 21 August 2056 at 11:04 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 25 August 2056 at 06:00 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