What is a waxing crescent moon? When and where do you see it?
Hi everyone and thanks for being here. We’re going to pick up on learning the phases of our moon where we have just begun with the New Moon, so if you need to catch up just check out that New Moon post by clicking here.
With the New Moon, we learned that the reason we can’t see it or the reason it is invisible is because the New Moon phase is where The Moon is traveling too close to The Sun along the arc of the ecliptic during the daytime where the Sun’s light occults The Moon from our sight.
The New Moon phase is when The Sun and The Moon are “in sync” with one another and are moving together along the arc of the ecliptic, but The Moon is traveling around The Real Oracle or The Real All-Seeing Eye in the sky a little faster from our perspective here on the ground than the Sun does.
This shows up in the difference between a solar year, which is the length of time it takes The Sun to travel all the way around The Real Oracle or The Real All-Seeing Eye in the sky to get back to where it was when you started tracking it versus the lunar year.
The only way to track the luminaries is by paying attention to the star constellations behind any luminary you are tracking. This is something our ancient ancestors long ago figured out and is great knowledge that we as a collective people have largely lost. It is our mission to return to this highest knowledge we so practically need today.
This is the reason we have begun our journey in learning Alternative Astronomy with our focus on the star constellations first. We have also been focused on the constellations in this specific area of the sky we call by the nicknames we gave it…The Real Oracle or The Real All-Seeing Eye. For our book series to help you learn the star constellations of the Northern Hemisphere by season of the year, click here.
The star constellations serve as what you can think of as permanent landmarks in the sky because the star constellations consistent, year after year cycle helps orient us as we are tracking what some of our ancient ancestors called “The Wandering Stars”. Around here, we usually call them The Luminaries, of which The Moon is the biggest and brightest in the night sky.
When you track The Sun against the background of star constellations, you may already know that it takes approximately 365 1/4 days for The Sun to make it’s way all the way around The Real Oracle or The Real All-Seeing Eye, but The Moon is moving a bit faster. The Moon completes it’s journey around in approximately 354 days. This is a difference of 11 days between a solar year and a lunar year.
The Moon moving a bit faster than The Sun is one of the real causes for The Moon’s phases.
Because The Moon moves a little faster than The Sun, after meeting up during the New Moon phase, they are going to start becoming more and more out of sync with one another after approximately 2 1/2 days together, or in other words they are growing apart.
When The Sun and The Moon start this growing apart from each other phase, this means we will be able to start seeing The Moon in the night sky again, but when? and where?
A Waxing Crescent Moon is when we will be able to see our moon in the night sky again and you will always find it following The Sun, just as it is setting in the West.
The Waxing Crescent Moon will also always be lit up on the same side that is facing the direction of The Sun, so you will know a Waxing Crescent because it will be lit on the West side, or your right side when looking up at it (facing due South from a Northern Hemisphere position.)
One of the coolest things we’ve discovered about The Moon’s phases is that they can also be used as a clock, as well as helping to set the calendar.
The shape of The Waxing Crescent Moon is a kind of visual clock, as it is shaped like a thumbnail, where just a sliver of The Moon is lit up. This is a visual clue telling you this Waxing Crescent Moon will only be visible in the sky for just a sliver of night-time hours or just a thumbnail amount of light in the night and it will be just as The Sun sets, found over the Western horizon, always following the sunset to it’s own moonset for the night.
A Waxing Crescent Moon is what it’s called because this crescent is waxing toward becoming Full.
So let’s pull all these Waxing Crescent Moon that can be used as a clock pieces of coolness together:
- A Waxing Crescent Moon is waxing toward becoming Full.
- A Waxing Crescent Moon is always lit up on the West side or the right side as it follows The Sun setting in the West.
- A Waxing Crescent Moon is always found over the Western horizon for just a sliver or thumbnail amount of night-time hours and that is always at the first couple of hours as the night is just beginning.
Some of the info for this post comes from our book Moon Days 2022 to help you learn more about our Moon’s cycle and phases with monthly sky maps to make it easy to see and you can find it by clicking here.
You can check our Table of Contents page by clicking here to catch up on previous lessons in our home school for grown-ups beginner course in Alternative Astronomy.
If you are interested in our advanced, private courses in Alternative Astronomy that are found nowhere else in the world, send an e-mail to info@starsnearme.com for more info about access, or to sign up for our private email list.
You can also watch the video version of this post below.
Until next time…stay lit and be well,
shannon