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

Waxing Crescent in Cancer

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 21% 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 15 May 2018 at 11:48.

Flower Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2018 after 10 days on 29 May 2018 at 14:20.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1896".

Lunation 227 / 1180

The Moon is 4 days 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 after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 17 May 2018 at 21:06 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 2 June 2018 at 16:34 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 363 302 km

The Moon is 363 302 km (225 745 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 14 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 316 km (251 852 mi).

Moon before ascending node

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

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 18 May 2018 at 15:02 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.652° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.727° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 June 2018 at 07:09 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

25 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 10 days

In 10 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