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

Waxing Crescent in Gemini

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 6% 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 is entering ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 21 April 2069 at 09:58.

Flower Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2069 after 12 days on 6 May 2069 at 09:11.

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 ∠1951"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1951" and ∠1908".

Lunation 857 / 1810

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 857 of Meeus index or 1810 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.34 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 7 minutes and it is 1 minute shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2069. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 37 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 32 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠4.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠4.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠21°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 21 April 2069 at 02:57 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 4 May 2069 at 05:38 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 367 486 km

The Moon is 367 486 km (228 345 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 134 km (252 360 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 22 April 2069 at 04:46 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 6 May 2069 at 03:49 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 11 April 2069 at 22:06 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.933° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠19.914° at the point of next northern standstill on 24 April 2069 at 15:22 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 6 May 2069 at 09:11 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