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 28% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 ∠21° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 15 July 2009 at 09:53.

Sturgeon Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2009 after 19 days on 6 August 2009 at 00:55.

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 ∠1922"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1922" and ∠1888".

Lunation 117 / 1070

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 117 of Meeus index or 1070 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.29 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 1 minute and it is 27 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2009. 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 44 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 25 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠349.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠349.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠4.5°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 7 July 2009 at 21:39 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 21 July 2009 at 20:16 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 372 897 km

The Moon is 372 897 km (231 707 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 465 km (222 118 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 8 July 2009 at 15:24 in ♑ Capricorn 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 22 July 2009 at 03:47 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 5 July 2009 at 07:34 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.460° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.477° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 July 2009 at 13:01 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 22 July 2009 at 02:35 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