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 1 day 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 passing about ∠23° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 26 September 2003 at 03:09.

Hunter Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2003 after 12 days on 10 October 2003 at 07:27.

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 ∠1957"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1957" and ∠1914".

Lunation 46 / 999

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 46 of Meeus index or 999 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 41 minutes and it is 28 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2003. 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 3 hours and 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠325.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠325.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠344°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 16 September 2003 at 09:22 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 September 2003 at 05:59 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 366 313 km

The Moon is 366 313 km (227 616 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 837 km (225 456 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 15 September 2003 at 23:28 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 29 September 2003 at 10:34 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 19 September 2003 at 19:56 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.874° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.963° at the point of next southern standstill on 2 October 2003 at 17:06 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 10 October 2003 at 07:27 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