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 2% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 passing about ∠25° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 25 April 2009 at 03:23.

Flower Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2009 after 12 days on 9 May 2009 at 04:01.

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 ∠1938"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1938" and ∠1906".

Lunation 115 / 1068

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 115 of Meeus index or 1068 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 48 minutes and it is 1 hour and 24 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 3 hours and 56 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 13 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠311.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠311.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠332.7°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 16 April 2009 at 09:15 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 April 2009 at 06:26 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 369 788 km

The Moon is 369 788 km (229 776 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 366 042 km (227 448 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 18 April 2009 at 05:19 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 1 May 2009 at 07:50 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 14 April 2009 at 13:02 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.665° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠26.567° at the point of next northern standstill on 28 April 2009 at 08:50 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

8 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 12 days

In 12 days on 9 May 2009 at 04:01 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