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

Waxing Crescent in Gemini

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 15% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 4 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 21 April 2012 at 07:18.

Flower Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2012 after 10 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 ∠1787"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1787" and ∠1907".

Lunation 152 / 1105

The Moon is 4 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

2 days 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 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 May 2012 at 03:33 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 401 132 km

The Moon is 401 132 km (249 252 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 10 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 954 km (221 801 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 24 April 2012 at 03:44 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 May 2012 at 09:43 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon at northern standstill

At 05:37 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠21.738°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-21.719° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 8 May 2012 at 06:18.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 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