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

Waxing Crescent in Aquarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 14% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 4 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 21 December 2071 at 11:47.

Wolf Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2072 after 11 days on 5 January 2072 at 18:13.

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 ∠1951".

Lunation 890 / 1843

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 890 of Meeus index or 1843 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 48 minutes and it is 41 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 6 hours and 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠138.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠138.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠166.3°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 10:25 about 15 days since last perigee on 9 December 2071 at 10:47 in ♋ Cancer 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 6 January 2072 at 17:46 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 405 839 km

This apogee Moon is 405 839 km (252 177 mi) away from Earth. It is 431 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 870 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 14 December 2071 at 01:42 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 28 December 2071 at 08:59 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 21 December 2071 at 16:34 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.491° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.460° at the point of next northern standstill on 4 January 2072 at 21:58 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

11 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 5 January 2072 at 18:13 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