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

Waxing Crescent in Aries

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 3 March 2079 at 13:49.

Worm Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2079 after 12 days on 17 March 2079 at 13:45.

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 ∠1928"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1928" and ∠1934".

Lunation 979 / 1932

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 979 of Meeus index or 1932 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 41 minutes and it is 2 hours and 14 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 1 hour and 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠296.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠296.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠322.3°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 23 February 2079 at 18:10 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 8 March 2079 at 01:47 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 371 753 km

The Moon is 371 753 km (230 997 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 876 km (229 209 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 21 February 2079 at 02:05 in ♏ Scorpio 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 7 March 2079 at 01:24 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 26 February 2079 at 08:11 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.818° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.915° at the point of next northern standstill on 11 March 2079 at 13:15 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 17 March 2079 at 13:45 in ♍ Virgo 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