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 6% 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 2 days on 20 March 2053 at 07:11.

Pink Moon after 11 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2053 after 11 days on 3 April 2053 at 06:22.

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 ∠1923"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1923" and ∠1925".

Lunation 658 / 1611

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 658 of Meeus index or 1611 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 37 minutes and it is 2 hours and 42 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 7 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 2 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠288°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠288° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠316.1°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 12 March 2053 at 21:51 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 25 March 2053 at 21:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 372 754 km

The Moon is 372 754 km (231 619 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 681 km (229 709 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 19 March 2053 at 23:33 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 1 April 2053 at 21:29 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 13 March 2053 at 04:30 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.150° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.163° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 March 2053 at 19:19 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 11 days

In 11 days on 3 April 2053 at 06:22 in ♎ Libra 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