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

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 21% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 9 July 2004 at 07:34.

Buck Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2004 after 19 days on 31 July 2004 at 18:05.

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 ∠1782"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1782" and ∠1888".

Lunation 55 / 1008

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 55 of Meeus index or 1008 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.62 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 57 minutes and it is 57 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 2 hours and 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 50 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠181.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠181.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠205.1°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 1 July 2004 at 23:00 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 14 July 2004 at 21:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 402 236 km

The Moon is 402 236 km (249 938 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 192 km (252 396 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 11 July 2004 at 00:59 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 25 July 2004 at 11:29 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 2 July 2004 at 03:43 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.538° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.543° at the point of next northern standstill on 15 July 2004 at 20:46 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 17 July 2004 at 11:24 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