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 28% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 5 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 ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 7 March 2008 at 17:14.

Worm Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2008 after 9 days on 21 March 2008 at 18:40.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1930".

Lunation 101 / 1054

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 101 of Meeus index or 1054 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 41 minutes and it is 2 hours and 18 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠310.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠310.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠332.7°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 10 March 2008 at 21:39 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 March 2008 at 20:13 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 363 301 km

The Moon is 363 301 km (225 745 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 14 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 094 km (251 714 mi).

Moon after ascending node

6 days after ascending node on 6 March 2008 at 06:52 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 19 March 2008 at 02:53 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 1 March 2008 at 08:03 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.030° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠27.985° at the point of next northern standstill on 14 March 2008 at 11:33 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 21 March 2008 at 18:40 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