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

Waxing Crescent in Taurus

Waxing Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 26% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 5 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 4 March 2087 at 23:45.

Worm Moon after 9 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2087 after 9 days on 19 March 2087 at 06:09.

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 ∠1967"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1967" and ∠1932".

Lunation 1078 / 2031

The Moon is 5 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1078 of Meeus index or 2031 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 41 minutes and it is 1 hour and 16 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 3 hours and 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠330.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠330.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠347.9°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 6 March 2087 at 18:05 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 March 2087 at 11:38 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 364 353 km

The Moon is 364 353 km (226 398 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 772 km (252 135 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♉ Taurus at 22:37 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 24 March 2087 at 01:56 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 26 February 2087 at 16:05 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.215° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠21.096° at the point of next northern standstill on 11 March 2087 at 11:26 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 9 days

In 9 days on 19 March 2087 at 06:09 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