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

Waxing Crescent in Aries

Waxing Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 21% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 4 days young.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♈ Aries

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♉ Taurus later.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 15 February 2056 at 14:00.

Worm Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2056 after 10 days on 2 March 2056 at 00:40.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1940".

Lunation 694 / 1647

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 694 of Meeus index or 1647 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 53 minutes and it is 5 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 4 hours and 9 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 54 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠113.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠113.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠147°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 22:27 about 15 days since last perigee on 4 February 2056 at 23:51 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 3 March 2056 at 19:44 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 405 159 km

This apogee Moon is 405 159 km (251 754 mi) away from Earth. It is 249 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 550 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 13 February 2056 at 13:45 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 February 2056 at 01:59 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 12 February 2056 at 02:37 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.191° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.253° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 February 2056 at 15:50 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

19 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 2 March 2056 at 00:40 in ♍ Virgo 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