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

Waxing Crescent in Taurus

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 22% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 5 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 is entering ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 20 February 2023 at 07:06.

Worm Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2023 after 11 days on 7 March 2023 at 12:40.

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 ∠1878"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1878" and ∠1939".

Lunation 286 / 1239

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 286 of Meeus index or 1239 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 17 minutes and it is 32 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 27 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 42 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠15.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠15.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠34.1°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 19 February 2023 at 09:06 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 3 March 2023 at 18:01 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 381 645 km

The Moon is 381 645 km (237 143 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 890 km (252 208 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♈ Aries at 18:56 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 11 March 2023 at 08:53 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 16 February 2023 at 14:36 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.629° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.716° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 March 2023 at 14:09 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 18:56 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 7 March 2023 at 12:40 in ♍ Virgo 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