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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 39% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 23 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 13 April 2012 at 10:50.

Flower Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2012 after 21 days on 6 May 2012 at 03:35.

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 ∠1880"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1880" and ∠1912".

Lunation 151 / 1104

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 151 of Meeus index or 1104 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 41 minutes and it is 12 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2012. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 57 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 6 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠142.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠142.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠168.7°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 7 April 2012 at 16:59 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 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 April 2012 at 13:49 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 381 183 km

The Moon is 381 183 km (236 856 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 422 km (252 539 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 10 April 2012 at 00:47 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 24 April 2012 at 03:44 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 10 April 2012 at 21:03 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.814° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.738° at the point of next northern standstill on 25 April 2012 at 05:37 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

4 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 6 days

In 6 days on 21 April 2012 at 07:18 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