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

Waxing Crescent in Aries

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 29% 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 16 January 2056 at 22:10.

Snow Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2056 after 10 days on 1 February 2056 at 12:36.

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 ∠1773"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1773" and ∠1950".

Lunation 693 / 1646

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 693 of Meeus index or 1646 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 49 minutes and it is 1 hour and 4 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 5 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 58 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠75.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠75.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠113.6°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 10 January 2056 at 16:48 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 24 January 2056 at 02:22 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 404 348 km

The Moon is 404 348 km (251 250 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 486 km (251 336 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 17 January 2056 at 06:04 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 31 January 2056 at 16:41 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

6 days since the last southern standstill on 15 January 2056 at 19:49 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.177° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.178° at the point of next northern standstill on 30 January 2056 at 06:21 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

18 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 1 February 2056 at 12:36 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