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

Waxing Crescent in Cancer

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 30% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 5 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 6 days on 23 April 2039 at 09:35.

Flower Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2039 after 8 days on 8 May 2039 at 11:20.

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 ∠1793"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1793" and ∠1905".

Lunation 486 / 1439

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 486 of Meeus index or 1439 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 3 minutes and it is 20 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2039. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 19 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 44 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠151.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠151.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠176.2°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 26 April 2039 at 06:54 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 9 May 2039 at 01:48 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 399 761 km

The Moon is 399 761 km (248 400 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 636 km (222 225 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 27 April 2039 at 14:05 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 10 May 2039 at 18:11 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon at northern standstill

At 03:37 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠24.598°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-24.653° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 12 May 2039 at 01:13.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 8 May 2039 at 11:20 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