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 2% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 1 day 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 2 March 2071 at 00:31.

Worm Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2071 after 12 days on 16 March 2071 at 01:18.

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 ∠1853"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1853" and ∠1935".

Lunation 880 / 1833

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 880 of Meeus index or 1833 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.61 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 32 minutes and it is 3 hours and 5 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 48 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 15 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠248.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠248.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠284.2°.

Moon after apogee

6 days since point of apogee on 24 February 2071 at 13:58 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 12 March 2071 at 10:31 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 386 761 km

The Moon is 386 761 km (240 322 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 245 km (228 195 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 17 February 2071 at 12:08 in ♎ Libra 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 4 March 2071 at 00:24 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 23 February 2071 at 23:25 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.262° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.201° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 March 2071 at 22:59 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the first to the middle part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 16 March 2071 at 01:18 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