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 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 30 May 2022 at 11:30.

Strawberry Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2022 after 12 days on 14 June 2022 at 11:52.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1892".

Lunation 277 / 1230

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 277 of Meeus index or 1230 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 22 minutes and it is 19 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2022. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 38 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 25 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠155.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠155.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠178.8°.

Moon before apogee

14 days since point of perigee on 17 May 2022 at 15:23 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 2 June 2022 at 01:14 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 405 476 km

The Moon is 405 476 km (251 951 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 191 km (252 395 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 29 May 2022 at 02:33 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 12 June 2022 at 10:02 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon at northern standstill

At 22:32 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠26.943°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-26.924° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 15 June 2022 at 10:59.

Draconic month

3 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 14 June 2022 at 11:52 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