Waxing Crescent Moon
Waxing Crescent MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

Waxing Crescent in Gemini

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 11% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 3 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♋ Cancer later.

3 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 3 days on 3 May 2076 at 04:51.

Flower Moon after 12 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2076 after 12 days on 18 May 2076 at 17:38.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1797"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1797" and ∠1901".

Lunation 944 / 1897

The Moon is 3 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 944 of Meeus index or 1897 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 22 minutes and it is 1 hour and 29 minutes shorter 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 22 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 47 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠78.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠78.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠114.1°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 26 April 2076 at 16:30 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 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 10 May 2076 at 07:16 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 398 848 km

The Moon is 398 848 km (247 833 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 248 km (251 188 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♊ Gemini at 13:36 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 20 May 2076 at 16:43 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 24 April 2076 at 11:14 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.184° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠24.265° at the point of next northern standstill on 7 May 2076 at 18:28 in ♋ Cancer.

New draconic month

At 13:36 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 12 days

In 12 days on 18 May 2076 at 17:38 in ♏ Scorpio 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