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

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 10% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 26 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♉ Taurus

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 21 June 2003 at 14:45.

Buck Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2003 after 17 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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1888".

Lunation 42 / 995

The Moon is 26 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 after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 25 June 2003 at 02:25 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 July 2003 at 22:05 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 404 882 km

The Moon is 404 882 km (251 582 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 143 km (226 889 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♉ Taurus at 14:34 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 10 July 2003 at 04:17 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

10 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 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.455° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 June 2003 at 21:14 in ♋ Cancer.

New draconic month

At 14:34 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 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