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 14% 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 16 December 2009 at 12:02.

Cold Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2009 after 11 days on 31 December 2009 at 19:13.

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 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1950".

Lunation 123 / 1076

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 123 of Meeus index or 1076 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 9 minutes and it is 31 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2009. 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 6 hours and 25 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 38 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠135.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠135.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠164.3°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 14:54 about 16 days since last perigee on 4 December 2009 at 14:12 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 1 January 2010 at 20:36 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 405 731 km

This apogee Moon is 405 731 km (252 110 mi) away from Earth. It is 323 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 978 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 18 December 2009 at 16:41 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 1 January 2010 at 12:30 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

4 days since the last southern standstill on 16 December 2009 at 02:38 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.769° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.787° at the point of next northern standstill on 30 December 2009 at 10:09 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 31 December 2009 at 19:13 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