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 4% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 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 ∠9° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 4 June 2046 at 15:22.

Strawberry Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2046 after 12 days on 18 June 2046 at 13:10.

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 ∠1899"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1899" and ∠1891".

Lunation 574 / 1527

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 574 of Meeus index or 1527 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 16 minutes and it is 1 hour and 29 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 2 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠274°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠274° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠304.9°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 28 May 2046 at 21:55 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 12 June 2046 at 03:54 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 377 508 km

The Moon is 377 508 km (234 573 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 663 km (229 698 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 25 May 2046 at 04:58 in ♒ Aquarius 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 8 June 2046 at 09:42 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 5 June 2046 at 05:17 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.677° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.680° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 June 2046 at 02:43 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 18 June 2046 at 13:10 in ♐ Sagittarius 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