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 6% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 2 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 23 August 2006 at 19:10.

Harvest Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2006 after 12 days on 7 September 2006 at 18:42.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1899".

Lunation 82 / 1035

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 82 of Meeus index or 1035 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.69 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 35 minutes and it is 54 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠158.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠158.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠182.3°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 01:23 about 15 days since last perigee on 10 August 2006 at 18:27 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 8 September 2006 at 03:07 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 406 271 km

This apogee Moon is 406 271 km (252 445 mi) away from Earth. It is 863 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 438 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 25 August 2006 at 21:34 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 8 September 2006 at 11:01 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 18 August 2006 at 19:43 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.645° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.705° at the point of next southern standstill on 2 September 2006 at 13:11 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

14 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 12 days

In 12 days on 7 September 2006 at 18:42 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