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

Waxing Crescent in Taurus

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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠25° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 18 April 2072 at 11:57.

Flower Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2072 after 11 days on 2 May 2072 at 11:34.

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 ∠1869"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1869" and ∠1909".

Lunation 894 / 1847

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 894 of Meeus index or 1847 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 22 minutes and it is 2 hours and 43 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 22 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 47 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠250.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠250.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠285°.

Moon after apogee

7 days since point of apogee on 12 April 2072 at 22:33 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 April 2072 at 15:34 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 383 518 km

The Moon is 383 518 km (238 307 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 523 km (228 368 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 15 April 2072 at 04:07 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 April 2072 at 14:06 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 8 April 2072 at 21:40 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.355° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.447° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 April 2072 at 08:04 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

19 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 11 days

In 11 days on 2 May 2072 at 11:34 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