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 10% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 3 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♒ Aquarius later.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 10 December 2053 at 03:40.

Cold Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2053 after 11 days on 25 December 2053 at 09:23.

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 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1949".

Lunation 667 / 1620

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 667 of Meeus index or 1620 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.79 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 53 minutes and it is 47 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2053. 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 6 hours and 9 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 54 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠141.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠141.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠168.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 21:20 about 15 days since last perigee on 27 November 2053 at 23:02 in ♊ Gemini 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 26 December 2053 at 06:40 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 405 943 km

This apogee Moon is 405 943 km (252 241 mi) away from Earth. It is 535 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 766 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 2 December 2053 at 16:41 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 17 December 2053 at 00:48 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 11 December 2053 at 12:05 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.771° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.770° at the point of next northern standstill on 25 December 2053 at 11:21 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

10 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 11 days

In 11 days on 25 December 2053 at 09:23 in ♋ Cancer 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