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

Waxing Crescent in Taurus

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 30% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 5 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 ♉ Taurus

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

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 1 March 2014 at 08:00.

Worm Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2014 after 10 days on 16 March 2014 at 17:09.

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 ∠1833"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1833" and ∠1934".

Lunation 175 / 1128

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 175 of Meeus index or 1128 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes and it is 45 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 59 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 10 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠25.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠25.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠46.9°.

Moon before apogee

6 days since point of perigee on 27 February 2014 at 19:52 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 11 March 2014 at 19:46 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 391 069 km

The Moon is 391 069 km (242 999 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 367 km (251 883 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 4 March 2014 at 17:45 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 19 March 2014 at 06:30 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 24 February 2014 at 01:24 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.175° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.084° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 March 2014 at 22:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 16 March 2014 at 17:09 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