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 14% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 4 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 ∠17° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 19 May 2023 at 15:53.

Strawberry Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2023 after 11 days on 4 June 2023 at 03:42.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1780"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1780" and ∠1895".

Lunation 289 / 1242

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 289 of Meeus index or 1242 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes and it is 1 hour and 11 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 same as the mean

The length of the current synodic month is equal to the mean synodic month length. It is %hours_to_shortest% and %minutes_to_shortest% longer than the 21st century's shortest and %hours_to_longest% and %minutes_to_longest% shorter than the 21st century's longest synodic months.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠92.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠92.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠127.4°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 11 May 2023 at 04:57 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 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 May 2023 at 01:39 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 402 579 km

The Moon is 402 579 km (250 151 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 510 km (251 351 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 17 May 2023 at 19:36 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 1 June 2023 at 06:23 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 22 May 2023 at 14:08 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.903° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.866° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 June 2023 at 16:21 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 4 June 2023 at 03:42 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