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

Waxing Crescent in Aries

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 43% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 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 in ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 11 January 2024 at 11:57.

Wolf Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2024 after 8 days on 25 January 2024 at 17:54.

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 ∠1953"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1953" and ∠1950".

Lunation 297 / 1250

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 297 of Meeus index or 1250 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 2 minutes and it is 1 hour and 1 minute 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 1 hour and 42 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 27 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠328°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠328° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠345.9°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 13 January 2024 at 10:35 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 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 29 January 2024 at 08:14 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 366 959 km

The Moon is 366 959 km (228 018 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 781 km (252 141 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♈ Aries at 14:05 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 31 January 2024 at 20:17 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 10 January 2024 at 07:04 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.164° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.203° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 January 2024 at 03:44 in ♋ Cancer.

New draconic month

At 14:05 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 8 days

In 8 days on 25 January 2024 at 17:54 in ♋ Cancer 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