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

Waxing Crescent in Capricorn

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 20% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 4 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 16 November 2009 at 19:14.

Cold Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2009 after 10 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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1943".

Lunation 122 / 1075

The Moon is 4 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

14 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 day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 November 2009 at 20:07 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 864 km

The Moon is 404 864 km (251 571 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 736 km (251 491 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♑ Capricorn at 11:34 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 5 December 2009 at 03:18 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days 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 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.772° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 December 2009 at 23:37 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 11:34 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 10 days

In 10 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