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

Waxing Crescent in Virgo

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 41% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 6 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 16 June 2015 at 14:05.

Buck Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2015 after 8 days on 2 July 2015 at 02:20.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1888".

Lunation 191 / 1144

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 191 of Meeus index or 1144 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.47 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 19 minutes and it is 2 hours and 10 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 1 hour and 25 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 44 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠78.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠78.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠112.8°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 17:01 about 13 days since last perigee on 10 June 2015 at 04:39 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 5 July 2015 at 18:54 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 134 km

This apogee Moon is 404 134 km (251 117 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's closest apogee of 2015. It is 1 274 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 83 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 10 June 2015 at 23:30 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 24 June 2015 at 17:23 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 16 June 2015 at 19:47 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.457° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.445° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 July 2015 at 06:48 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 2 July 2015 at 02:20 in ♑ Capricorn 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