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 1% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 1 day 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 29 September 2008 at 08:12.

Hunter Moon after 14 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2008 after 14 days on 14 October 2008 at 20:03.

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 ∠1815"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1815" and ∠1917".

Lunation 108 / 1061

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 108 of Meeus index or 1061 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 2 minutes and it is 2 hours and 39 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 18 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 45 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠98.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠98.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠133.4°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 20 September 2008 at 03:17 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 5 October 2008 at 10:34 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 394 896 km

The Moon is 394 896 km (245 377 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 716 km (251 479 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 25 September 2008 at 16:20 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 10 October 2008 at 00:38 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 21 September 2008 at 18:30 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.476° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.370° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 October 2008 at 14:05 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 14 days

In 14 days on 14 October 2008 at 20:03 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