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

Waxing Crescent in Aquarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 18% 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 19 December 2082 at 15:11.

Wolf Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2083 after 11 days on 4 January 2083 at 02:32.

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 ∠1849"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1849" and ∠1951".

Lunation 1026 / 1979

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1026 of Meeus index or 1979 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 39 minutes and it is 1 hour and 46 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 5 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 4 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠31°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠31° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠55.2°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 17 December 2082 at 18:03 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 29 December 2082 at 13:39 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 387 609 km

The Moon is 387 609 km (240 849 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 040 km (251 680 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♒ Aquarius at 05:41 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 6 January 2083 at 17:32 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

4 days since the last southern standstill on 19 December 2082 at 08:21 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.412° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.424° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 January 2083 at 11:49 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 05:41 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 4 January 2083 at 02:32 in ♋ Cancer 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