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 1% 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 leaving the last ∠3° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 6 May 2016 at 19:30.

Flower Moon after 14 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2016 after 14 days on 21 May 2016 at 21:15.

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 ∠1961"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1961" and ∠1901".

Lunation 202 / 1155

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 202 of Meeus index or 1155 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.31 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes and it is 31 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2016. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 14 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 55 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠10.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠10.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠27.6°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 6 May 2016 at 04:14 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 18 May 2016 at 22:06 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 365 524 km

The Moon is 365 524 km (227 126 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 934 km (252 236 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 3 May 2016 at 01:27 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 15 May 2016 at 20:39 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 27 April 2016 at 04:44 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.382° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.447° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 May 2016 at 21:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

18 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 14 days

In 14 days on 21 May 2016 at 21:15 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