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

Waxing Crescent in Pisces

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 is entering ♓ Pisces

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 3 February 2011 at 02:31.

Snow Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2011 after 13 days on 18 February 2011 at 08:36.

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 ∠1777"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1777" and ∠1946".

Lunation 137 / 1090

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 137 of Meeus index or 1090 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.76 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 15 minutes and it is 29 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2011. 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 5 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠139.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠139.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠167°.

Moon before apogee

13 days since point of perigee on 22 January 2011 at 00:10 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 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 February 2011 at 23:13 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 403 454 km

The Moon is 403 454 km (250 695 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 924 km (252 229 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 30 January 2011 at 18:29 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 14 February 2011 at 08:14 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

5 days since the last southern standstill on 29 January 2011 at 16:26 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.180° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠24.080° at the point of next northern standstill on 13 February 2011 at 09:00 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

4 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 18 February 2011 at 08:36 in ♌ Leo 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