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

Waxing Crescent in Scorpio

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 22% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 5 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠25° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 17 September 2020 at 11:00.

Hunter Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2020 after 10 days on 1 October 2020 at 21:05.

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 ∠1961"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1961" and ∠1912".

Lunation 256 / 1209

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 256 of Meeus index or 1209 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 31 minutes and it is 1 hour and 5 minutes shorter 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 13 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 56 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠341.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠341.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠357°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 18 September 2020 at 13:44 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 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 3 October 2020 at 17:22 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 365 589 km

The Moon is 365 589 km (227 166 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 321 km (252 476 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 10 September 2020 at 23:05 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 23 September 2020 at 12:33 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 12 September 2020 at 05:25 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.353° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.458° at the point of next southern standstill on 24 September 2020 at 19:11 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 1 October 2020 at 21:05 in ♈ Aries 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