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 7% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 3 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 leaving the last ∠2° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♑ Capricorn later.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 16 November 2009 at 19:14.

Cold Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2009 after 12 days on 2 December 2009 at 07:30.

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 ∠1788"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1788" and ∠1942".

Lunation 122 / 1075

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 122 of Meeus index or 1075 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 48 minutes and it is 2 hours and 21 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 4 hours and 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠99.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠99.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠135.6°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 7 November 2009 at 07:30 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 November 2009 at 20:07 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 400 780 km

The Moon is 400 780 km (249 033 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 736 km (251 491 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 7 November 2009 at 23:25 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 21 November 2009 at 11:34 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 18 November 2009 at 19:53 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.795° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.772° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 December 2009 at 23:37 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 2 December 2009 at 07:30 in ♊ Gemini 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