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 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 16 September 2096 at 15:10.

Hunter Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2096 after 13 days on 2 October 2096 at 01:24.

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 ∠1792"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1792" and ∠1910".

Lunation 1196 / 2149

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1196 of Meeus index or 2149 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 18 minutes and it is 2 hours and 49 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 2 hours and 34 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 29 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠110.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠110.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠143.3°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 6 September 2096 at 10:00 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 September 2096 at 03:15 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 399 950 km

The Moon is 399 950 km (248 517 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 898 km (251 592 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 7 September 2096 at 18:11 in ♉ Taurus 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 21 September 2096 at 09:31 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 10 September 2096 at 21:55 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.671° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.795° at the point of next southern standstill on 25 September 2096 at 05:26 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 2 October 2096 at 01:24 in ♈ Aries 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