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

Waxing Crescent in Cancer

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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 5 June 2016 at 03:00.

Strawberry Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2016 after 13 days on 20 June 2016 at 11:02.

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 ∠1918"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1918" and ∠1891".

Lunation 203 / 1156

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 203 of Meeus index or 1156 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 1 minute and it is 1 hour and 43 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 4 hours and 43 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 26 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠27.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠27.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠48.9°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 3 June 2016 at 10:55 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 15 June 2016 at 12:00 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 373 723 km

The Moon is 373 723 km (232 221 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 022 km (251 669 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 30 May 2016 at 04:45 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 11 June 2016 at 22:20 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 09:13 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.575°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.610° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 20 June 2016 at 18:52.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 20 June 2016 at 11:02 in ♐ Sagittarius 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