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

Waxing Crescent in Leo

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 7% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 2 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 ♌ Leo

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♍ Virgo later.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 17 July 2023 at 18:32.

Sturgeon Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2023 after 12 days on 1 August 2023 at 18:31.

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 291 / 1244

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 291 of Meeus index or 1244 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 6 minutes and it is 56 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 22 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 41 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠155.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠155.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠179.2°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 06:56 about 15 days since last perigee on 4 July 2023 at 22:28 in ♑ Capricorn 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 2 August 2023 at 05:52 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 406 291 km

This apogee Moon is 406 291 km (252 458 mi) away from Earth. It is 883 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 418 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 11 July 2023 at 01:23 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 25 July 2023 at 15:05 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 16 July 2023 at 02:40 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.849° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.924° at the point of next southern standstill on 30 July 2023 at 11:13 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 1 August 2023 at 18:31 in ♒ Aquarius 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