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 3% 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 18 May 2072 at 00:18.

Flower Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2072 after 12 days on 31 May 2072 at 22:18.

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 ∠1904"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1904" and ∠1896".

Lunation 895 / 1848

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 895 of Meeus index or 1848 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes and it is 1 hour and 40 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 5 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 4 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠285°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠285° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠313.1°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 10 May 2072 at 17:48 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 23 May 2072 at 23:46 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 376 429 km

The Moon is 376 429 km (233 902 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 656 km (229 694 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 12 May 2072 at 08:23 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 25 May 2072 at 15:57 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 6 May 2072 at 07:01 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.526° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠18.609° at the point of next northern standstill on 20 May 2072 at 14:55 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

20 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 12 days

In 12 days on 31 May 2072 at 22:18 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