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 3% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 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 in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 11 November 2015 at 17:47.

Beaver Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2015 after 12 days on 25 November 2015 at 22:44.

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 ∠1821"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1821" and ∠1939".

Lunation 196 / 1149

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 196 of Meeus index or 1149 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 42 minutes and it is 1 hour and 41 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 3 hours and 58 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 5 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠220.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠220.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠255.6°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 7 November 2015 at 21:48 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 23 November 2015 at 20:06 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 393 522 km

The Moon is 393 522 km (244 523 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 10 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 818 km (225 445 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 7 November 2015 at 15:53 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 21 November 2015 at 13:56 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 31 October 2015 at 09:02 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.241° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-18.331° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 November 2015 at 00:39 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 25 November 2015 at 22:44 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