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 16% 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after New Moon

Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 20 February 2099 at 04:05.

Worm Moon after 10 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2099 after 10 days on 6 March 2099 at 22:59.

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 ∠1797"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1797" and ∠1938".

Lunation 1226 / 2179

The Moon is 4 days young and navigating from the beginning to the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1226 of Meeus index or 2179 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 41 minutes and it is 1 hour and 58 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 57 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 6 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠175.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠175.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠199.5°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 20 February 2099 at 17:45 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 March 2099 at 16:59 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 398 895 km

The Moon is 398 895 km (247 862 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 10 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 797 km (221 703 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 23 February 2099 at 01:04 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 March 2099 at 04:56 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 15 February 2099 at 03:18 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.548° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.627° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 March 2099 at 19:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

1 day 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 6 March 2099 at 22:59 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