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 32% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 6 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 leaving the last ∠2° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♉ Taurus later.

5 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 5 days on 1 February 2079 at 23:35.

Snow Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2079 after 8 days on 15 February 2079 at 23:45.

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 ∠1955"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1955" and ∠1945".

Lunation 978 / 1931

The Moon is 6 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 978 of Meeus index or 1931 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.59 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 13 minutes and it is 2 hours and 32 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 29 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 34 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠261.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠261.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠296.6°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 26 January 2079 at 21:03 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 11 February 2079 at 08:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 366 705 km

The Moon is 366 705 km (227 860 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 141 km (229 374 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♈ Aries at 23:17 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 21 February 2079 at 02:05 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 30 January 2079 at 00:20 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.617° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.715° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 February 2079 at 07:40 in ♋ Cancer.

New draconic month

At 23:17 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 8 days

In 8 days on 15 February 2079 at 23:45 in ♌ Leo 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