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 3% 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 in ♍ Virgo

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♎ Libra later.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 27 August 2068 at 18:28.

Harvest Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2068 after 13 days on 11 September 2068 at 17:19.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1901".

Lunation 849 / 1802

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 849 of Meeus index or 1802 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.68 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 20 minutes and it is 1 hour and 9 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 36 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 27 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠160.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠160.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠183.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 20:38 about 15 days since last perigee on 14 August 2068 at 15:33 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 13 days until point of next perigee on 12 September 2068 at 00:17 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 406 437 km

This apogee Moon is 406 437 km (252 548 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 029 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 272 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 20 August 2068 at 00:01 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 3 September 2068 at 12:48 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 21 August 2068 at 14:51 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.140° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.990° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 September 2068 at 09:10 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 11 September 2068 at 17:19 in ♓ Pisces 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