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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 18% 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♑ Capricorn later.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 26 October 2011 at 19:56.

Beaver Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2011 after 11 days on 10 November 2011 at 20:16.

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 ∠1918"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1918" and ∠1932".

Lunation 146 / 1099

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 146 of Meeus index or 1099 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes and it is 1 hour and 43 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 30 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 39 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠5.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠5.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠21.6°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 26 October 2011 at 12:26 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 8 November 2011 at 13:20 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 373 663 km

The Moon is 373 663 km (232 183 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 177 km (252 387 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 29 October 2011 at 14:59 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 November 2011 at 00:35 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 29 October 2011 at 20:17 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.609° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.558° at the point of next northern standstill on 13 November 2011 at 07:23 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

1 day 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 11 days

In 11 days on 10 November 2011 at 20:16 in ♉ Taurus 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