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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 18% 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 ♊ Gemini

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

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 7 August 2004 at 22:01.

Sturgeon Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2004 after 18 days on 30 August 2004 at 02:22.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1893".

Lunation 56 / 1009

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 56 of Meeus index or 1009 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.58 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 1 minute and it is 55 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 16 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 47 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠205.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠205.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠234°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 09:34 about 12 days since last perigee on 30 July 2004 at 06:25 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 27 August 2004 at 05:37 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 405 291 km

This apogee Moon is 405 291 km (251 836 mi) away from Earth. It is 117 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 418 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 7 August 2004 at 02:41 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 21 August 2004 at 12:11 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 29 July 2004 at 13:12 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.607° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠27.674° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 August 2004 at 02:38 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

4 days 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 16 August 2004 at 01:24 in ♌ Leo 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