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 3% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 2 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 in ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 6 April 2008 at 03:55.

Pink Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2008 after 12 days on 20 April 2008 at 10:25.

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 ∠1964"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1964" and ∠1916".

Lunation 102 / 1055

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 102 of Meeus index or 1055 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 23 minutes and it is 1 hour and 19 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 4 hours and 21 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 48 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠332.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠332.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠349.4°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 19:28 about 11 days since last apogee on 26 March 2008 at 20:13 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next apogee on 23 April 2008 at 09:34 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 361 083 km

This perigee Moon is 361 083 km (224 367 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 425 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 9 273 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 2 April 2008 at 15:18 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 15 April 2008 at 05:48 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 28 March 2008 at 16:00 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.898° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.812° at the point of next northern standstill on 10 April 2008 at 17:42 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

4 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 20 April 2008 at 10:25 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