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 in ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 1 day on 8 March 2073 at 20:15.

Worm Moon after 13 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2073 after 13 days on 23 March 2073 at 17:17.

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 8.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1931".

Lunation 905 / 1858

The Moon is 1 day young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 905 of Meeus index or 1858 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 58 minutes and it is 1 hour and 57 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 5 hours and 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠168.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠168.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠192.2°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 03:57 about 14 days since last perigee on 23 February 2073 at 05:00 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 13 days until point of next perigee on 23 March 2073 at 16:57 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 406 480 km

This apogee Moon is 406 480 km (252 575 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 072 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 229 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 7 March 2073 at 07:16 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 21 March 2073 at 12:15 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 2 March 2073 at 23:21 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.001° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.057° at the point of next northern standstill on 17 March 2073 at 17:57 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 13 days

In 13 days on 23 March 2073 at 17:17 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