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

Waxing Crescent in Libra

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 17% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 4 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 24 August 2063 at 01:17.

Harvest Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2063 after 11 days on 7 September 2063 at 20:53.

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 ∠1938"

Lunar disc appears visually 2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1938" and ∠1899".

Lunation 787 / 1740

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 787 of Meeus index or 1740 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.34 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 4 minutes and it is 1 hour and 21 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 40 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 29 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠358.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠358.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠14.3°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 24 August 2063 at 02:53 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 September 2063 at 18:12 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 369 827 km

The Moon is 369 827 km (229 800 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 190 km (252 395 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 24 August 2063 at 06:07 in ♍ Virgo 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 6 September 2063 at 22:09 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 19 August 2063 at 15:04 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.242° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.251° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 September 2063 at 05:30 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 7 September 2063 at 20:53 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