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

Waxing Crescent in Aquarius

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 9% 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 5 January 2038 at 13:41.

Wolf Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2038 after 12 days on 21 January 2038 at 04:00.

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 ∠1801"

Lunar disc appears visually 8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1801" and ∠1951".

Lunation 470 / 1423

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 470 of Meeus index or 1423 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 11 minutes and it is 1 hour and 12 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 27 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 36 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠79.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠79.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠117.1°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 29 December 2037 at 18:48 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 January 2038 at 13:57 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 397 942 km

The Moon is 397 942 km (247 270 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 530 km (251 363 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 5 January 2038 at 21:32 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 January 2038 at 08:06 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 5 January 2038 at 08:13 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.189° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.188° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 January 2038 at 19:02 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 21 January 2038 at 04:00 in ♌ Leo 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