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

Waxing Crescent in Aries

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 3% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♉ Taurus later.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 28 March 2017 at 02:57.

Pink Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2017 after 12 days on 11 April 2017 at 06:08.

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 ∠1952"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1952" and ∠1921".

Lunation 213 / 1166

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 213 of Meeus index or 1166 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.39 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 19 minutes and it is 1 hour and 51 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 3 hours and 25 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 44 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠321.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠321.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠340.4°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 18 March 2017 at 17:25 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 March 2017 at 12:39 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 367 271 km

The Moon is 367 271 km (228 212 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 855 km (226 089 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 25 March 2017 at 15:41 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 April 2017 at 09:14 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 21 March 2017 at 05:22 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.912° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.984° at the point of next northern standstill on 3 April 2017 at 06:12 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

18 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 April 2017 at 06:08 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