The Crescent Moon

[Joan Marie]

I just got in from a walk.

The air was crisp and the stars just sparkled, you know how they do sometimes when the sky it so clear?
But the real "star" in tonight's sky was the crescent moon, just hanging there at it's usual jaunty, rakish angle and so bright that the full circle of the moon was clearly visible.

I thought about how so much is always made of the full moon and the new moon but hardly a word ever gets put in for the crescent moon.

So I'm here to do that tonight. I think from now on I will do my howling at the under-appreciated and surely powerful and magically charged crescent moon.

[HRU's Muse]

I love the crescent moon, especially when you can see the "earthshine" reflection like that. I'm partial to it as it was my birth lunation.
Here is an awesome article on the lunar cycle by Demetra George that talks about the birth phases and how we also move through all phases every thirty years of our life, which would be a different phase every 3.75 years.
https://demetra-george.com/blog/the-lunation-cycle/

[Joan Marie]

What a great article to read on the Equinox.

This graphic appears there detailing the lunation cycle.

[ZhanThay]

Beautiful crescent moon tonight driving home westward after sunset

[Rachelcat]

Unfortunately, I didn't see it. Maybe tonight! I've heard it called "the old moon in the new moon's arms." So romantic and, well, moony!

[ZhanThay]

As part of my nerdy trip I like to guess how 'old' the moon is whenever I see it and make an estimate of what sign it's in.

So knowing that when it's New Moon it's in conjunction with the Sun it therefore shares the same zodiac sign. Now, in mid May, that means tropical sign of Taurus. When it's Full Moon it has the opposite sign to the Sun so that would mean the Moon is in Scorpio. On the First Quarter, the Moon is 90 degrees away (a quarter of it's cycle) from the Sun or in a square aspect. First Quarter is Leo, Last Quarter is Aquarius. (All of this is for the tropical zodiac when the Sun is in Taurus). You may notice that this is all the Fixed signs.

How do we know when it's First or Last Quarter? When it's First Quarter the Moon is setting after the Sun in the western sky and is at it's highest point around sunset. In the Southern Hemisphere the "white side" will be on the left. In the Northern hemisphere it's on the right. Either way it's on the western side because that's where the Sun is shining from. So from New Moon to First Quarter the Moon will be visible in the early evening sky. At midday you may be able to see a First Quarter Moon rise in the east.

Conversely, the Last Quarter Moon has the "white side" on the eastern side and rises before the Sun. It's in the midheaven at sunrise.

For the sake of completeness (I am a Virgo, right), the Full Moon rises as the Sun is setting.

So taking the guesstimating further: looking at the proportion of "white" to "black" we can say that when it's half-half it's about 7 days from New and Full. If it's early evening and the "white side" is a crescent about half as small again then it's about 3.5 days after New. We have to guess how many days away it is from the the exact phases and then consider that that the Moon advances through a zodiac sign in about 2.5 days. In the example in this paragraph (3.5 days old) it would most likely be the next sign after the sign of the New Moon. For a Taurus Sun that would be a Gemini Moon.

This process gets more complicated when you consider that the New Moon does not necessarily occur when the Sun first enters a sign. The New Moon could occur at any part of the Sun's time in one sign. For example, in this time, April-May 2021, the Sun entered Taurus on 20th April, Full Moon was on the 27th April, New Moon was on the 12th May (for me in eastern AU) and today the Sun's at 26 degrees Taurus. Because the Sun is in late Taurus, the First quarter will be when the Moon is in late Leo but it's a close thing. The Sun will be in the last degree of Taurus and the Moon in the last degree of Leo (just after 5am 20th May for me).

In conclusion, the Moon takes about 7 days between phases and takes about 2.5 days to move through one zodiac sign. If you see the crescent Moon this evening how old do you think it is and what sign is it in? Good luck and all the best