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

Waxing Crescent in Aries

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 3 March 2003 at 02:35.

Worm Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2003 after 12 days on 18 March 2003 at 10:34.

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 ∠1775"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1775" and ∠1934".

Lunation 39 / 992

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 39 of Meeus index or 992 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 44 minutes and it is 12 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 4 hours longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 3 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠127.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠127.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠157.7°.

Moon before apogee

13 days since point of perigee on 19 February 2003 at 16:19 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 7 March 2003 at 16:34 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 403 825 km

The Moon is 403 825 km (250 925 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 383 km (251 893 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 23 February 2003 at 15:47 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 9 March 2003 at 19:23 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon after southern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 26 February 2003 at 05:53 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.015° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.158° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 March 2003 at 19:44 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 18 March 2003 at 10:34 in ♍ Virgo 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