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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 36% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 6 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 in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 26 September 2003 at 03:09.

Hunter Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2003 after 8 days on 10 October 2003 at 07:27.

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 ∠1963"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1963" and ∠1917".

Lunation 46 / 999

The Moon is 6 days 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 after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 28 September 2003 at 05:59 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 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 14 October 2003 at 02:27 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 365 084 km

The Moon is 365 084 km (226 853 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 692 km (252 085 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 29 September 2003 at 10:34 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 13 October 2003 at 03:40 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

11 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 day 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

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

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 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