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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 42% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

The moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

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 ∠11° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 21 June 2003 at 14:45.

Buck Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2003 after 21 days on 13 July 2003 at 19:21.

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 ∠1785"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1785" and ∠1888".

Lunation 42 / 995

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 42 of Meeus index or 995 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.6 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 19 minutes and it is 2 hours and 5 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 1 hour and 35 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 28 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠205.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠205.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠234.1°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 12 June 2003 at 23:18 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 25 June 2003 at 02:25 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 401 533 km

The Moon is 401 533 km (249 501 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 233 km (251 800 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 12 June 2003 at 21:16 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 June 2003 at 14:34 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon after southern standstill

6 days since the last southern standstill on 15 June 2003 at 13:28 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.477° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.455° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 June 2003 at 21:14 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 29 June 2003 at 18:39 in ♋ Cancer 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.

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