Crescent ♋ Cancer
Moon phase on 20 April 2018 Friday is Waxing Crescent, 5 days young Moon is in Gemini.Share this page: twitter facebook linkedin
Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 16 April 2018 at 01:57.
Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.
Lunar disc appears visually 2.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1967" and ∠1910".
Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2018 after 9 days on 30 April 2018 at 00:58.
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.
The Moon is 5 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the beginning to the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 226 of Meeus index or 1179 from Brown series.
Length of current 226 lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 51 minutes. It is 1 hour and 56 minutes longer than next lunation 227 length.
Length of current synodic month is 2 hours and 53 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 3 hours and 16 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠296.5°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠321.7°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep decreasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
Moon is reaching point of perigee on this date at 14:44, this is 12 days after last apogee on 8 April 2018 at 05:32 in ♑ Capricorn. Lunar orbit is starting to get wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth for 15 days ahead, until it will get to the point of next apogee on 6 May 2018 at 00:35 in ♑ Capricorn.
This perigee Moon is 368 713 km (229 108 mi) away from Earth. It is 6 205 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 1 643 km farther than the closest perigee of 21st century.
10 days after its descending node on 10 April 2018 at 08:09 in ♒ Aquarius, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 3 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 23 April 2018 at 12:19 in ♌ Leo.
24 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♌ Leo, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
12 days after previous South standstill on 7 April 2018 at 14:37 in ♑ Capricorn, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-20.320°. Next day the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠20.445° in the next northern standstill on 21 April 2018 at 07:38 in ♋ Cancer.
After 9 days on 30 April 2018 at 00:58 in ♏ Scorpio, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.