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

Waxing Crescent in Cancer

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 21% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 4 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠14° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 6 May 2027 at 10:58.

Flower Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2027 after 9 days on 20 May 2027 at 10:59.

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 ∠1970"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1970" and ∠1900".

Lunation 338 / 1291

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 338 of Meeus index or 1291 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 42 minutes and it is 1 hour and 20 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 4 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠308.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠308.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠330.4°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 9 May 2027 at 20:07 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 15 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 25 May 2027 at 15:13 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 363 811 km

The Moon is 363 811 km (226 062 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 15 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 801 km (251 532 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 29 April 2027 at 13:24 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 12 May 2027 at 17:03 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 9 May 2027 at 01:45 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.225° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.162° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 May 2027 at 08:52 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 20 May 2027 at 10:59 in ♏ Scorpio 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