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 ∠25° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 23 March 2069 at 01:13.

Pink Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2069 after 13 days on 6 April 2069 at 16:13.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1924".

Lunation 856 / 1809

The Moon is 2 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 856 of Meeus index or 1809 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 45 minutes and it is 38 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 59 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 10 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠349.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠349.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠4.9°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 23 March 2069 at 15:45 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 7 April 2069 at 02:44 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 363 340 km

The Moon is 363 340 km (225 769 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 13 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 308 km (252 468 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 12 March 2069 at 17:45 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 25 March 2069 at 18:54 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 15 March 2069 at 15:52 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.085° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.006° at the point of next northern standstill on 28 March 2069 at 06:45 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 6 April 2069 at 16:13 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