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 3% 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 in ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 3 March 2068 at 23:38.

Worm Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2068 after 13 days on 18 March 2068 at 22:56.

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 ∠1960"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1960" and ∠1934".

Lunation 843 / 1796

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 843 of Meeus index or 1796 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.38 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 14 minutes and it is 2 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2068. 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 30 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 39 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠3.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠3.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠19.9°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 3 March 2068 at 18:11 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 16 March 2068 at 22:03 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 365 656 km

The Moon is 365 656 km (227 208 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 376 km (252 510 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 26 February 2068 at 04:49 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 9 March 2068 at 14:23 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 27 February 2068 at 02:59 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.894° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.781° at the point of next northern standstill on 10 March 2068 at 14:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

8 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 18 March 2068 at 22:56 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