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 9% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 leaving the last ∠2° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♉ Taurus later.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 20 May 2006 at 09:21.

Strawberry Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2006 after 18 days on 11 June 2006 at 18:03.

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 ∠1944"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1944" and ∠1895".

Lunation 78 / 1031

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 78 of Meeus index or 1031 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 42 minutes and it is 58 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 3 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠38.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠38.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠64.2°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 22 May 2006 at 15:29 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 4 June 2006 at 01:41 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 368 751 km

The Moon is 368 751 km (229 131 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 080 km (251 084 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 22 May 2006 at 18:00 in ♓ Pisces 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 5 June 2006 at 12:10 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 16 May 2006 at 03:52 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.539° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.490° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 May 2006 at 01:13 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 27 May 2006 at 05:26 in ♊ Gemini 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