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

Waxing Crescent in Cancer

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 22% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 4 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 19 May 2080 at 10:56.

Strawberry Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2080 after 10 days on 2 June 2080 at 13:45.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1894".

Lunation 994 / 1947

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 994 of Meeus index or 1947 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.32 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 44 minutes and it is 1 hour and 4 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 9 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠323.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠323.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠341.5°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 21 May 2080 at 17:58 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 June 2080 at 12:37 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 363 334 km

The Moon is 363 334 km (225 765 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 14 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 518 km (251 977 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 16 May 2080 at 00:50 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 28 May 2080 at 17:05 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 21 May 2080 at 16:35 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.443° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.386° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 June 2080 at 03:15 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 10 days

In 10 days on 2 June 2080 at 13:45 in ♐ Sagittarius 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