Day: October 13, 2023

October 13, 2023 Current Moon Phase and Northern Hemisphere’s Planetary Positions

Current Moon Phase

You can use this link to go forward or backward in time for Moon phase information. If you are curious, you can even find out what phase the Moon was in when you or anyone else was born.

From MoonGiant.com

The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is a Waning Crescent phase. This phase is best viewed just before the sunrise in the western sky. In this phase the Moon’s illumination is growing smaller each day until the New Moon. During this part of the Moon cycle, the Moon is getting closer to the Sun as viewed from Earth and the night side of the Moon is facing the Earth with only a small edge of the Moon being illuminated. It can also be a great time to see the features of the Moon’s surface. Along the edge where the illuminated portion meets the dark side, the craters and mountains cast long shadows making them easier to observe with a telescope or binoculars.

Visit the October 2023 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waning Crescent Phase

The Waning Crescent on October 13 has an illumination of 2%. This is the percentage of the Moon illuminated by the Sun. The illumination is constantly changing and can vary up to 10% a day. On October 13 the Moon is 28.37 days old. This refers to how many days it has been since the last New Moon. It takes 29.53 days for the Moon to orbit the Earth and go through the lunar cycle of all 8 Moon phases.

Phase Details

Phase: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 2%
Moon Age: 28.37 days
Moon Angle: 0.50
Moon Distance: 401,249.48 km
Sun Angle: 0.53
Sun Distance: 149,239,447.56 km

Useful Moon Resources

Check the weather before a night of Moon gazing at weather.com

For a list of all the current meteor showers visit American Meteor Society

The 8 Lunar Phases

There are 8 lunar phases the Moon goes through in its 29.53 days lunar cycle. The 4 major Moon phases are Full Moon, New Moon, First Quarter and Last Quarter. Between these major phases, there are 4 minor ones: the Waxing Crescent, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous and Waning Crescent. For more info on the Moon Cycle and on each phase check out Wikipedia Lunar Phase page.

Friday, October 13, 1307 CE and The Knights Templar

Yes, the Knights Templars were and are a Christian group but the fighting and good deeds they did centuries ago have always held a place in my heart. Basically, they were killed wherever they were in a small or large group or imprisoned on this date in 1307 because the Catholic Pope and King of France owed them to much money, they were consider the first bank with branches across the world at the time. The “bank” held money for those that were traveling through dangerous territory so they did not have to carry large amounts of gold or other monies and with a slip of paper from the location they deposited their gold or monies they could withdraw it or part of it at another Knights Templar’s location.

Today is Friday the 13th. Many people of the superstitious sort consider Friday the 13th to be unlucky. There are people who wear good luck charms all day and some who go so far as to refuse to leave home, lest something unlucky happen to them.

But many don’t know that one legend of the origin of Friday the 13th as unlucky comes from the persecution of the Knights Templar in the 14th Century. On Friday, October 13th, 1307, King Philip IV of France, in league with Pope Clement V ordered all Templars to be rounded up and thrown in prison. The Knights were accused of numerous crimes including heresy and treason. For two hundred years the Knights Templar had been the most dominant force in Christendom, but after their defeat at the Siege of Acre and the loss of the Holy Land, their influence began to wane.

Yet they still held enormous power and great amounts of wealth. Pope Clement sought to merge the Knights Templar with the Knights Hospitaller another powerful order at the time. Neither group found such a merger ideal. And despite the loss of the Holy Land, the Templars were still a part of of everyday life in the Middle Ages. Their houses, churches and …

Click here to read the rest of this article from theknightstemplar.org