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 3% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 2 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 31 May 2049 at 14:00.

Strawberry Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2049 after 13 days on 15 June 2049 at 19:26.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1774"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1774" and ∠1892".

Lunation 611 / 1564

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 611 of Meeus index or 1564 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.62 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 50 minutes and it is 27 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 2 hours and 6 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 57 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠136.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠136.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠162.9°.

Moon before apogee

13 days since point of perigee on 19 May 2049 at 19:18 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 4 June 2049 at 14:39 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 403 969 km

The Moon is 403 969 km (251 015 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 617 km (252 039 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 31 May 2049 at 11:41 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 14 June 2049 at 17:59 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 1 June 2049 at 04:32 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠22.085° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-22.089° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 June 2049 at 07:58 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 15 June 2049 at 19:26 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