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 2% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 1 day 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 passing about ∠21° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 25 November 2011 at 06:10.

Cold Moon after 14 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2011 after 14 days on 10 December 2011 at 14:36.

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 ∠1932"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1932" and ∠1944".

Lunation 147 / 1100

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 147 of Meeus index or 1100 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.5 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 57 minutes and it is 1 hour and 36 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 47 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 22 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠21.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠21.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠42.1°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 23 November 2011 at 23:24 in ♏ Scorpio 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 6 December 2011 at 01:13 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 370 985 km

The Moon is 370 985 km (230 519 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 414 km (251 913 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 01:02 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 10 December 2011 at 07:04 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon at southern standstill

At 06:47 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-22.552°. This is the year's southernmost lunar standstill of 2011. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠22.554° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 10 December 2011 at 13:37.

New draconic month

At 01:02 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 14 days

In 14 days on 10 December 2011 at 14:36 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