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

Waxing Crescent in Aquarius

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 17% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 4 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 30 November 2081 at 14:36.

Cold Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2081 after 11 days on 16 December 2081 at 04:31.

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 ∠1813"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1813" and ∠1947".

Lunation 1013 / 1966

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1013 of Meeus index or 1966 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.58 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes and it is 2 hours and 26 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 8 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 55 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠52.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠52.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠84.8°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 27 November 2081 at 03:46 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 9 December 2081 at 00:48 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 395 325 km

The Moon is 395 325 km (245 644 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 288 km (251 213 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 24 November 2081 at 11:52 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 December 2081 at 17:00 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 1 December 2081 at 21:51 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.151° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.126° at the point of next northern standstill on 16 December 2081 at 08:03 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

23 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 16 December 2081 at 04:31 in ♊ Gemini 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