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 1% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 1 day 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 ∠9° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 15 May 2018 at 11:48.

Flower Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2018 after 13 days on 29 May 2018 at 14:20.

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 ∠1947"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1947" and ∠1897".

Lunation 227 / 1180

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 227 of Meeus index or 1180 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 55 minutes and it is 50 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 4 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 20 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠321.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠321.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠340.3°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 6 May 2018 at 00:35 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 17 May 2018 at 21:06 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 368 227 km

The Moon is 368 227 km (228 806 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 777 km (226 041 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 7 May 2018 at 10:24 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 May 2018 at 13:13 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 4 May 2018 at 23:00 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.562° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.652° at the point of next northern standstill on 18 May 2018 at 15:02 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

22 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 13 days

In 13 days on 29 May 2018 at 14:20 in ♐ Sagittarius 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