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

Waning Crescent in Cancer

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 36% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 13 September 2017 at 06:25.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2017 after 21 days on 5 October 2017 at 18:40.

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 ∠1970"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1970" and ∠1908".

Lunation 218 / 1171

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 218 of Meeus index or 1171 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 1 minute and it is 2 hours and 42 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 1 hour and 44 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 25 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠49.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠49.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠79°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 13 September 2017 at 16:04 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 27 September 2017 at 06:49 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 363 927 km

The Moon is 363 927 km (226 134 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 342 km (251 246 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 4 September 2017 at 18:41 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 17 September 2017 at 18:28 in ♌ Leo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 13:00 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠19.438°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-19.516° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 28 September 2017 at 10:06.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 20 September 2017 at 05:30 in ♍ Virgo 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