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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 33% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 6 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 29 September 2008 at 08:12.

Hunter Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2008 after 9 days on 14 October 2008 at 20:03.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1919".

Lunation 108 / 1061

The Moon is 6 days 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 at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 10:34 about 15 days since last perigee on 20 September 2008 at 03:17 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 11 days until point of next perigee on 17 October 2008 at 06:06 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 404 716 km

This apogee Moon is 404 716 km (251 479 mi) away from Earth. It is 692 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 993 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 25 September 2008 at 16:20 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 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 at southern standstill

At 14:05 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-27.370°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠27.270° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 19 October 2008 at 00:21.

Draconic month

22 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 9 days

In 9 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