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 passing about ∠22° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 12 February 2059 at 14:27.

Snow Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2059 after 10 days on 27 February 2059 at 10:06.

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 ∠1934"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1934" and ∠1942".

Lunation 731 / 1684

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 731 of Meeus index or 1684 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 38 minutes and it is 15 minutes longer 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 3 hours and 6 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 3 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠357°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠357° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠12.4°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 12 February 2059 at 18:34 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 February 2059 at 13:16 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 370 639 km

The Moon is 370 639 km (230 304 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 509 km (252 593 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 6 February 2059 at 23:45 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 19 February 2059 at 09:15 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

6 days since the last southern standstill on 9 February 2059 at 14:58 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.103° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.179° at the point of next northern standstill on 22 February 2059 at 09:40 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 27 February 2059 at 10:06 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