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

Waxing Crescent in Aquarius

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♓ Pisces later.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 28 January 2017 at 00:07.

Snow Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2017 after 12 days on 11 February 2017 at 00:33.

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 ∠1868"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1868" and ∠1948".

Lunation 211 / 1164

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 211 of Meeus index or 1164 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.62 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 51 minutes and it is 2 hours and 52 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 7 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 56 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠259.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠259.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠295°.

Moon after apogee

7 days since point of apogee on 22 January 2017 at 00:14 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 February 2017 at 13:59 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 383 673 km

The Moon is 383 673 km (238 403 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 817 km (229 172 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♒ Aquarius at 22:21 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 11 February 2017 at 19:49 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

4 days since the last southern standstill on 25 January 2017 at 11:59 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.900° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.865° at the point of next northern standstill on 7 February 2017 at 18:34 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

14 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 12 days

In 12 days on 11 February 2017 at 00:33 in ♌ Leo 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