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

Waxing Crescent in Virgo

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 is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 21 August 2066 at 00:50.

Harvest Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2066 after 11 days on 4 September 2066 at 01:37.

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 ∠1861"

Lunar disc appears visually 2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1861" and ∠1898".

Lunation 824 / 1777

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 824 of Meeus index or 1777 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 58 minutes and it is 1 hour and 3 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠236.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠236.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠272.1°.

Moon after apogee

7 days since point of apogee on 16 August 2066 at 05:19 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 September 2066 at 01:49 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 385 255 km

The Moon is 385 255 km (239 386 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 541 km (227 137 mi).

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 16 August 2066 at 21:14 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 August 2066 at 14:05 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 15 August 2066 at 06:35 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.625° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.516° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 August 2066 at 07:59 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

20 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 11 days

In 11 days on 4 September 2066 at 01:37 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