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 14% 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 leaving the last ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 3 September 2081 at 09:01.

Harvest Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2081 after 11 days on 18 September 2081 at 03:45.

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 ∠1948"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1948" and ∠1904".

Lunation 1010 / 1963

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1010 of Meeus index or 1963 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 22 minutes and it is 1 hour and 19 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 22 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 47 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠357.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠357.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠12.5°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 3 September 2081 at 13:09 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 17 September 2081 at 08:20 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 368 014 km

The Moon is 368 014 km (228 673 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 234 km (252 422 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 3 September 2081 at 14:55 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 17 September 2081 at 06:18 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 29 August 2081 at 07:15 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.537° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.547° at the point of next southern standstill on 10 September 2081 at 20:08 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 18 September 2081 at 03:45 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