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

Waxing Crescent in Aquarius

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 2% 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 is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 6 January 2019 at 01:28.

Wolf Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2019 after 13 days on 21 January 2019 at 05:16.

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 ∠1771"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1771" and ∠1951".

Lunation 235 / 1188

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 235 of Meeus index or 1188 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.82 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 35 minutes and it is 35 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2019. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠149.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠149.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠175.6°.

Moon before apogee

14 days since point of perigee on 24 December 2018 at 09:52 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 9 January 2019 at 04:29 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 730 km

The Moon is 404 730 km (251 488 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 116 km (252 349 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♒ Aquarius at 00:08 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 20 January 2019 at 22:48 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 5 January 2019 at 18:45 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.553° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.544° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 January 2019 at 23:20 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 21 January 2019 at 05:16 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