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

Waxing Crescent in Libra

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 4% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 days 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 26 September 2068 at 10:48.

Hunter Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2068 after 12 days on 11 October 2068 at 01:39.

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 ∠1779"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1779" and ∠1916".

Lunation 850 / 1803

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 850 of Meeus index or 1803 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.73 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 29 minutes and it is 4 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2068. 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 45 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠183.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠183.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠209.1°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 26 September 2068 at 00:00 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 October 2068 at 11:20 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 402 825 km

The Moon is 402 825 km (250 304 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 423 km (222 092 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 16 September 2068 at 02:30 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 September 2068 at 14:29 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 17 September 2068 at 21:08 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.889° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.769° at the point of next southern standstill on 2 October 2068 at 15:38 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 11 October 2068 at 01:39 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