Waning Crescent Moon in Taurus on 18 May 2023 Thursday (2024)

Moon in ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 12 May 2023 at 14:28.

Strawberry Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2023 after 16 days on 4 June 2023 at 03:42.

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 ∠1873"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1873" and ∠1897".

Lunation 288 / 1241

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 288 of Meeus index or 1241 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 41 minutes and it is 1 hour and 3 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

True anomaly ∠59.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠59.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠92.6°.

Moon after perigee

7 days since point of perigee on 11 May 2023 at 04:57 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 May 2023 at 01:39 in ♌ Leo.

Last perigee | Next apogee

Distance to Moon 382 733 km

The Moon is 382 733 km (237 819 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 510 km (251 351 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 17 May 2023 at 19:36 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 1 June 2023 at 06:23 in ♏ Scorpio.

Last node | Next node

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 9 May 2023 at 09:01 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.937° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.903° at the point of next northern standstill on 22 May 2023 at 14:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Last standstill | Next standstill

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.

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Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 19 May 2023 at 15:53 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is going to be in a New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy alignment.

Last syzygy | Next syzygy