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

Waxing Crescent in Sagittarius

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 37% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 6 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 is entering ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 5 September 2013 at 11:36.

Harvest Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2013 after 7 days on 19 September 2013 at 11:13.

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 ∠1952"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1952" and ∠1906".

Lunation 169 / 1122

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 169 of Meeus index or 1122 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 58 minutes and it is 43 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠249.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠249.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠285.3°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 30 August 2013 at 23:46 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 September 2013 at 16:34 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 367 170 km

The Moon is 367 170 km (228 149 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 388 km (228 284 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 9 September 2013 at 17:29 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 22 September 2013 at 13:48 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 29 August 2013 at 17:03 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.801° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-19.685° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 September 2013 at 18:30 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 19 September 2013 at 11:13 in ♓ Pisces 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