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

Waxing Crescent in Capricorn

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 4% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 5 December 2010 at 17:36.

Cold Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2010 after 13 days on 21 December 2010 at 08:13.

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 ∠1837"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1837" and ∠1948".

Lunation 135 / 1088

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 135 of Meeus index or 1088 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 27 minutes and it is 2 hours and 1 minute 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 43 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 20 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠67°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠67° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠103.5°.

Moon before apogee

6 days since point of perigee on 30 November 2010 at 19:09 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 13 December 2010 at 08:34 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 390 094 km

The Moon is 390 094 km (242 393 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 408 km (251 287 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♑ Capricorn at 04:15 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 21 December 2010 at 14:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 6 December 2010 at 02:10 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.233° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠24.238° at the point of next northern standstill on 20 December 2010 at 12:37 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 04:15 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 13 days

In 13 days on 21 December 2010 at 08:13 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