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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 31% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 24 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠16° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 11 June 2012 at 10:41.

Buck Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2012 after 20 days on 3 July 2012 at 18:52.

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 ∠1785"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1785" and ∠1889".

Lunation 153 / 1106

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 153 of Meeus index or 1106 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes and it is 1 hour and 53 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 2 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠191.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠191.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠217.1°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 3 June 2012 at 13:19 in ♏ Scorpio 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 16 June 2012 at 01:24 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 401 595 km

The Moon is 401 595 km (249 540 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 791 km (252 147 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 3 June 2012 at 20:38 in ♏ Scorpio 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 17 June 2012 at 15:43 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 4 June 2012 at 17:05 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.714° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.721° at the point of next northern standstill on 18 June 2012 at 17:37 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 19 June 2012 at 15:02 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