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

Waxing Crescent in Cancer

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 37% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 6 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 8 April 2024 at 18:21.

Pink Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2024 after 9 days on 23 April 2024 at 23:49.

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 ∠1839"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1839" and ∠1912".

Lunation 300 / 1253

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 300 of Meeus index or 1253 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.38 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 1 minute and it is 15 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2024. 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 3 hours and 43 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 26 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠17.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠17.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠36°.

Moon before apogee

6 days since point of perigee on 7 April 2024 at 17:53 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 20 April 2024 at 02:09 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 389 776 km

The Moon is 389 776 km (242 196 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 625 km (252 044 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 8 April 2024 at 12:20 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 22 April 2024 at 10:45 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 13 April 2024 at 22:36 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.552° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 14 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.509° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 April 2024 at 14:28 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 23 April 2024 at 23:49 in ♎ Libra 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