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 35% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 6 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 ∠16° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 17 January 2018 at 02:17.

Wolf Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2018 after 8 days on 31 January 2018 at 13:27.

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 ∠1883"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1883" and ∠1949".

Lunation 223 / 1176

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 223 of Meeus index or 1176 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 48 minutes and it is 2 hours and 42 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2018. 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 7 hours and 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠198.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠198.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠227.1°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 15 January 2018 at 02:10 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 January 2018 at 09:54 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 380 561 km

The Moon is 380 561 km (236 470 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 995 km (223 069 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 18 January 2018 at 14:28 in ♒ Aquarius 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 31 January 2018 at 18:46 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 15 January 2018 at 16:28 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.048° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.027° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 January 2018 at 11:32 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

19 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 31 January 2018 at 13:27 in ♌ Leo 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