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 11% 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 18 June 2006 at 14:08.

Buck Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2006 after 18 days on 11 July 2006 at 03:02.

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 ∠1913"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1913" and ∠1888".

Lunation 79 / 1032

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 79 of Meeus index or 1032 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes and it is 1 hour and 46 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 2 hours and 4 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 5 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠64.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠64.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠97.5°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 16 June 2006 at 17:07 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 1 July 2006 at 20:12 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 374 630 km

The Moon is 374 630 km (232 784 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 448 km (251 312 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 18 June 2006 at 19:11 in ♓ Pisces 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 2 July 2006 at 14:19 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 12 June 2006 at 10:30 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.452° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.444° at the point of next northern standstill on 25 June 2006 at 08:40 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

3 days 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 3 days

In 3 days on 25 June 2006 at 16:05 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