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

Waxing Crescent in Libra

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 40% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 6 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠9° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 6 July 2081 at 17:44.

Buck Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2081 after 8 days on 20 July 2081 at 20:22.

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 ∠1961"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1961" and ∠1888".

Lunation 1008 / 1961

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1008 of Meeus index or 1961 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.32 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 40 minutes and it is 2 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 5 hours and 4 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 5 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠322.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠322.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠341.4°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 9 July 2081 at 01:02 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 24 July 2081 at 19:37 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 365 547 km

The Moon is 365 547 km (227 140 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 426 km (251 920 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 10 July 2081 at 22:38 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 24 July 2081 at 18:52 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 5 July 2081 at 12:53 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.356° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.389° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 July 2081 at 08:57 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 20 July 2081 at 20:22 in ♑ Capricorn 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