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 1% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 17 April 2026 at 11:52.

Flower Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2026 after 13 days on 1 May 2026 at 17:23.

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 ∠1958"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1958" and ∠1911".

Lunation 325 / 1278

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 325 of Meeus index or 1278 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.34 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 9 minutes and it is 1 hour and 16 minutes 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 4 hours and 35 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 34 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠330.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠330.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠347.5°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 7 April 2026 at 08:32 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 April 2026 at 06:57 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 366 063 km

The Moon is 366 063 km (227 461 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 631 km (224 707 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 13 April 2026 at 23:43 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 26 April 2026 at 14:36 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 8 April 2026 at 05:01 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.291° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.210° at the point of next northern standstill on 21 April 2026 at 11:12 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

4 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 1 May 2026 at 17:23 in ♏ Scorpio 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