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

Waning Crescent in Pisces

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 is entering ♓ Pisces

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 25 April 2011 at 02:47.

Flower Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2011 after 19 days on 17 May 2011 at 11:09.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1781"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1781" and ∠1906".

Lunation 139 / 1092

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 139 of Meeus index or 1092 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.68 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 18 minutes and it is 2 hours and 6 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 3 hours and 34 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 29 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠190.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠190.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠216.7°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 17 April 2011 at 05:59 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 29 April 2011 at 18:02 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 402 345 km

The Moon is 402 345 km (250 006 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 043 km (252 303 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 22 April 2011 at 01:05 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 6 May 2011 at 14:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

5 days since the last southern standstill on 21 April 2011 at 13:40 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-23.498° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠23.421° at the point of next northern standstill on 6 May 2011 at 03:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 3 May 2011 at 06:51 in ♉ Taurus 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