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 6% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ∠20° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 4 August 2018 at 18:18.

Sturgeon Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2018 after 16 days on 26 August 2018 at 11:56.

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 ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1893".

Lunation 229 / 1182

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 229 of Meeus index or 1182 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.3 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 10 minutes and it is 54 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 5 hours and 34 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 35 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠356°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠356° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠11.2°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 27 July 2018 at 05:44 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 August 2018 at 18:05 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 363 580 km

The Moon is 363 580 km (225 918 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 083 km (222 502 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 27 July 2018 at 22:40 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 10 August 2018 at 13:40 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 8 August 2018 at 22:33 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.757° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.773° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 August 2018 at 02:58 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

26 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 1 day

In 1 day on 11 August 2018 at 09:58 in ♌ Leo 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