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 44% 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 is entering ♈ Aries

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 21 December 2033 at 18:47.

Wolf Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2034 after 7 days on 4 January 2034 at 19:47.

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 ∠1963"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1963" and ∠1951".

Lunation 420 / 1373

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 420 of Meeus index or 1373 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes and it is 2 hours and 6 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠252°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠252° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠289°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 16 December 2033 at 03:29 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 January 2034 at 00:06 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 365 214 km

The Moon is 365 214 km (226 933 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 922 km (228 616 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 15 December 2033 at 02:35 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 29 December 2033 at 00:23 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before northern standstill

6 days since the last southern standstill on 21 December 2033 at 14:13 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.491° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.468° at the point of next northern standstill on 3 January 2034 at 15:55 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 4 January 2034 at 19:47 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