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 10% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 3 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♓ Pisces later.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 6 January 2019 at 01:28.

Wolf Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2019 after 11 days on 21 January 2019 at 05:16.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1951".

Lunation 235 / 1188

The Moon is 3 days 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 at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 04:29 about 15 days since last perigee on 24 December 2018 at 09:52 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 21 January 2019 at 19:58 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 406 116 km

This apogee Moon is 406 116 km (252 349 mi) away from Earth. It is 708 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 593 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 7 January 2019 at 00:08 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 January 2019 at 22:48 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days 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 10 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

16 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 11 days

In 11 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