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

Waxing Crescent in Taurus

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 4% 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 21 April 2012 at 07:18.

Flower Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2012 after 12 days on 6 May 2012 at 03:35.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1908".

Lunation 152 / 1105

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 152 of Meeus index or 1105 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.69 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 29 minutes and it is 1 hour and 14 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 45 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠168.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠168.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠191.8°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 22 April 2012 at 13:49 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 May 2012 at 03:33 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 404 958 km

The Moon is 404 958 km (251 629 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 954 km (221 801 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 10 April 2012 at 00:47 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 24 April 2012 at 03:44 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 10 April 2012 at 21:03 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.814° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠21.738° at the point of next northern standstill on 25 April 2012 at 05:37 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 6 May 2012 at 03:35 in ♏ Scorpio 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