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 9% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 3 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 leaving the last ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♓ Pisces later.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 8 January 2008 at 11:37.

Wolf Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2008 after 11 days on 22 January 2008 at 13:35.

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 ∠1881"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1881" and ∠1951".

Lunation 99 / 1052

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 99 of Meeus index or 1052 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 7 minutes and it is 2 hours and 37 minutes longer 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 23 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 40 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠242.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠242.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠280°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 3 January 2008 at 08:06 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 January 2008 at 08:39 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 381 157 km

The Moon is 381 157 km (236 840 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 366 436 km (227 693 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♒ Aquarius at 15:17 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next descending node later on 24 January 2008 at 10:49 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

4 days since the last southern standstill on 6 January 2008 at 15:50 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.939° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.985° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 January 2008 at 23:29 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 15:17 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 22 January 2008 at 13:35 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