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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 4% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 27 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 26 June 2008 at 12:10.

Buck Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2008 after 16 days on 18 July 2008 at 07:59.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1887".

Lunation 104 / 1057

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 104 of Meeus index or 1057 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.29 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 6 hours and 56 minutes and it is 58 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2008. 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 5 hours and 48 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 21 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠4.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠4.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠20.1°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 21:22 about 15 days since last apogee on 16 June 2008 at 17:33 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 14 July 2008 at 04:13 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 359 513 km

This perigee Moon is 359 513 km (223 391 mi) away from Earth. It is 2 995 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 10 843 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 22 June 2008 at 23:17 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 5 July 2008 at 15:53 in ♌ Leo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 21:36 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠27.541°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-27.566° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 15 July 2008 at 15:03.

Draconic month

8 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 3 July 2008 at 02:19 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