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 1% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 passing about ∠17° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 21 April 2050 at 10:25.

Flower Moon after 14 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2050 after 14 days on 6 May 2050 at 22:26.

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 ∠1896"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1896" and ∠1908".

Lunation 622 / 1575

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 622 of Meeus index or 1575 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 25 minutes and it is 1 hour and 6 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 19 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 50 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠41.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠41.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠69.6°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 18 April 2050 at 19:04 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 30 April 2050 at 15:11 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 378 037 km

The Moon is 378 037 km (234 901 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 600 km (251 407 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♉ Taurus at 19:31 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 7 May 2050 at 06:21 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 12 April 2050 at 03:28 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.531° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.497° at the point of next northern standstill on 24 April 2050 at 21:53 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 14 days

In 14 days on 6 May 2050 at 22:26 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