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

Waxing Crescent in Taurus

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 18% 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 is entering ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 26 March 2028 at 04:31.

Pink Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2028 after 9 days on 9 April 2028 at 10:27.

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 ∠1863"

Lunar disc appears visually 3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1863" and ∠1921".

Lunation 349 / 1302

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 349 of Meeus index or 1302 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 16 minutes and it is 2 hours and 47 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 32 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 31 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠212.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠212.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠243.3°.

Moon after apogee

7 days since point of apogee on 22 March 2028 at 23:24 in ♒ Aquarius 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 7 April 2028 at 16:02 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 384 645 km

The Moon is 384 645 km (239 007 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 361 km (224 539 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 20 March 2028 at 16:19 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 3 April 2028 at 22:08 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 17 March 2028 at 10:25 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.380° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠26.235° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 April 2028 at 03:04 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 9 April 2028 at 10:27 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