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 11% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 3 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 2 April 2030 at 22:02.

Pink Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2030 after 11 days on 18 April 2030 at 03:20.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1917".

Lunation 374 / 1327

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 374 of Meeus index or 1327 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 10 minutes and it is 1 minute longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2030. 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 3 hours and 26 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 37 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠139°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠139° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠165.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 18:47 about 15 days since last perigee on 21 March 2030 at 22:00 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 19 April 2030 at 03:44 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 405 659 km

This apogee Moon is 405 659 km (252 065 mi) away from Earth. It is 251 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 050 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 25 March 2030 at 05:48 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 April 2030 at 08:29 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 25 March 2030 at 03:57 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-23.011° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠22.881° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 April 2030 at 08:53 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 18 April 2030 at 03:20 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