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 11% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 26 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 ∠13° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 8 May 2018 at 02:09.

Flower Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2018 after 17 days on 29 May 2018 at 14:20.

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 ∠1857"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1857" and ∠1899".

Lunation 226 / 1179

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 226 of Meeus index or 1179 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 51 minutes and it is 1 hour and 56 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 53 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 16 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠296.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠296.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠321.7°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 6 May 2018 at 00:35 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 17 May 2018 at 21:06 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 385 959 km

The Moon is 385 959 km (239 824 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 777 km (226 041 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 7 May 2018 at 10:24 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 May 2018 at 13:13 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 4 May 2018 at 23:00 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.562° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.652° at the point of next northern standstill on 18 May 2018 at 15:02 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

18 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 2 days

In 2 days on 15 May 2018 at 11:48 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