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 21% 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 in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠17° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 10 May 2051 at 10:29.

Flower Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2051 after 11 days on 25 May 2051 at 17:35.

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 ∠1864"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1864" and ∠1898".

Lunation 635 / 1588

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 635 of Meeus index or 1588 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 27 minutes and it is 46 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2051. 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 4 hours and 17 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 52 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠23.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠23.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠43.2°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 9 May 2051 at 01:26 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 21 May 2051 at 04:56 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 384 453 km

The Moon is 384 453 km (238 888 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 251 km (251 811 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 9 May 2051 at 06:46 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 23 May 2051 at 02:03 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 12 May 2051 at 15:20 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.181° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.213° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 May 2051 at 03:09 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

18 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 25 May 2051 at 17:35 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