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

Waxing Crescent in Virgo

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 6% 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 is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 24 July 2055 at 09:48.

Sturgeon Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2055 after 11 days on 7 August 2055 at 10:57.

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 ∠1957"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1957" and ∠1889".

Lunation 687 / 1640

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 687 of Meeus index or 1640 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 27 minutes and it is 22 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 17 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 52 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠315.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠315.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠336.4°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 15 July 2055 at 07:49 in ♈ Aries 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 27 July 2055 at 04:56 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 366 308 km

The Moon is 366 308 km (227 613 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 935 km (226 760 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 25 July 2055 at 00:16 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 7 August 2055 at 01:42 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

3 days since the last northern standstill on 22 July 2055 at 22:16 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.410° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.399° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 August 2055 at 18:05 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 7 August 2055 at 10:57 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