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

Waxing Crescent in Aries

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 26% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 5 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠17° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 31 January 2052 at 18:30.

Snow Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2052 after 9 days on 14 February 2052 at 18:21.

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 ∠1962"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1962" and ∠1946".

Lunation 644 / 1597

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 644 of Meeus index or 1597 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.55 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 6 minutes and it is 2 hours and 15 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 22 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 41 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠285.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠285.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠314.8°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 24 January 2052 at 12:51 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 February 2052 at 18:01 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 365 305 km

The Moon is 365 305 km (226 990 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 370 138 km (229 993 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♈ Aries at 10:04 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 18 February 2052 at 16:11 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 28 January 2052 at 05:17 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.646° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.554° at the point of next northern standstill on 10 February 2052 at 09:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 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 9 days

In 9 days on 14 February 2052 at 18:21 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