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 16% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 4 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 ∠12° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 9 February 2043 at 21:07.

Snow Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2043 after 10 days on 23 February 2043 at 21:58.

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 ∠1962"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1962" and ∠1943".

Lunation 533 / 1486

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 533 of Meeus index or 1486 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.5 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 2 minutes and it is 2 hours and 5 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 42 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 27 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠303°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠303° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠327.1°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 17:40 about 12 days since last apogee on 1 February 2043 at 17:22 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 16 days until point of next apogee on 1 March 2043 at 13:38 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 367 963 km

This perigee Moon is 367 963 km (228 642 mi) away from Earth. It is 5 455 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 2 393 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♈ Aries at 07:12 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 26 February 2043 at 15:03 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 6 February 2043 at 04:21 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.451° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.529° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 February 2043 at 03:26 in ♋ Cancer.

New draconic month

At 07:12 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 10 days

In 10 days on 23 February 2043 at 21:58 in ♌ Leo 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