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 4% 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 is entering ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 30 March 2014 at 18:45.

Pink Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2014 after 13 days on 15 April 2014 at 07:42.

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 ∠1871"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1871" and ∠1920".

Lunation 176 / 1129

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 176 of Meeus index or 1129 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 30 minutes and it is 56 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 14 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 55 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠46.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠46.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠76.9°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 27 March 2014 at 18:30 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 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 8 April 2014 at 14:52 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 383 195 km

The Moon is 383 195 km (238 106 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 503 km (251 347 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♈ Aries at 02:30 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 15 April 2014 at 13:22 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 23 March 2014 at 07:28 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.997° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.957° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 April 2014 at 07:12 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 15 April 2014 at 07:42 in ♎ Libra 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