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 44% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 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 is entering ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

7 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 7 days on 20 February 2004 at 09:18.

Worm Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2004 after 8 days on 6 March 2004 at 23:14.

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 9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1937".

Lunation 51 / 1004

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 51 of Meeus index or 1004 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.56 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 24 minutes and it is 1 hour and 16 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 40 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 23 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠59.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠59.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠93.6°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 16 February 2004 at 07:34 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 28 February 2004 at 10:45 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 405 031 km

The Moon is 405 031 km (251 675 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 259 km (251 195 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 26 February 2004 at 00:15 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 10 March 2004 at 23:05 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 16 February 2004 at 13:51 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.229° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.341° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 March 2004 at 11:47 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 6 March 2004 at 23:14 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