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

Waxing Crescent in Capricorn

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 4 December 2040 at 07:33.

Cold Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2040 after 13 days on 18 December 2040 at 12:16.

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 ∠1951"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1951" and ∠1947".

Lunation 506 / 1459

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 506 of Meeus index or 1459 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 35 minutes and it is 1 hour 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 9 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠323.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠323.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠342.7°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 24 November 2040 at 19:12 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 December 2040 at 13:20 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 367 475 km

The Moon is 367 475 km (228 338 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 352 km (225 776 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 3 December 2040 at 01:02 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 15 December 2040 at 21:13 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 22 November 2040 at 02:56 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.813° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-26.791° at the point of next southern standstill on 6 December 2040 at 01:37 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 18 December 2040 at 12:16 in ♊ Gemini 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