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

Waxing Crescent in Cancer

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 9% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 3 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 12 May 2002 at 10:45.

Flower Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2002 after 10 days on 26 May 2002 at 11:51.

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 ∠1870"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1870" and ∠1898".

Lunation 29 / 982

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 29 of Meeus index or 982 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 1 minute and it is 2 hours and 21 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 17 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 46 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠233.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠233.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠268.1°.

Moon after apogee

7 days since point of apogee on 7 May 2002 at 19:15 in ♓ Pisces 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 23 May 2002 at 15:31 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 383 317 km

The Moon is 383 317 km (238 182 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 985 km (226 791 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 14 May 2002 at 13:00 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 27 May 2002 at 09:39 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 1 May 2002 at 16:55 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.975° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠25.039° at the point of next northern standstill on 16 May 2002 at 07:53 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 26 May 2002 at 11:51 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