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 3% 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 2 September 2073 at 01:52.

Harvest Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2073 after 12 days on 16 September 2073 at 08:52.

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 ∠1967"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1967" and ∠1903".

Lunation 911 / 1864

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 911 of Meeus index or 1864 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 29 minutes and it is 23 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2073. 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 4 hours and 15 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 54 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠334.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠334.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠351.1°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 14:51 about 12 days since last apogee on 22 August 2073 at 13:26 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next apogee on 19 September 2073 at 03:23 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 360 664 km

This perigee Moon is 360 664 km (224 106 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 844 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 9 692 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 31 August 2073 at 18:55 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 September 2073 at 16:02 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 28 August 2073 at 17:17 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.572° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.604° at the point of next southern standstill on 10 September 2073 at 08:21 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

2 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 16 September 2073 at 08:52 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