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

Waxing Crescent in Taurus

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 1% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 1 day 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 in ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 1 May 2003 at 12:15.

Flower Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2003 after 13 days on 16 May 2003 at 03:36.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1904".

Lunation 41 / 994

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 41 of Meeus index or 994 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 5 minutes and it is 1 hour and 46 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 3 hours and 21 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 42 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠181.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠181.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠205.5°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 1 May 2003 at 07:39 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 May 2003 at 15:39 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 404 921 km

The Moon is 404 921 km (251 606 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 449 km (222 109 mi).

Moon before ascending node

13 days after descending node on 19 April 2003 at 00:24 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 3 May 2003 at 02:17 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 21 April 2003 at 17:59 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.442° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.496° at the point of next northern standstill on 6 May 2003 at 09:48 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

26 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 16 May 2003 at 03:36 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