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

Waxing Crescent in Leo

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 38% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 6 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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠9° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 7 May 2054 at 17:00.

Flower Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2054 after 8 days on 21 May 2054 at 15:16.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1899".

Lunation 672 / 1625

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 672 of Meeus index or 1625 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 40 minutes and it is 1 hour and 46 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 3 hours and 4 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 5 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠288.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠288.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠316.1°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 03:26 about 12 days since last apogee on 30 April 2054 at 05:45 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next apogee on 28 May 2054 at 00:43 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 369 431 km

This perigee Moon is 369 431 km (229 554 mi) away from Earth. It is 6 923 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 925 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 2 May 2054 at 00:18 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 15 May 2054 at 06:44 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 11 May 2054 at 05:32 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.033° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.115° at the point of next southern standstill on 24 May 2054 at 11:01 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 21 May 2054 at 15:16 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