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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠14° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 14 April 2020 at 22:56.

Flower Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2020 after 15 days on 7 May 2020 at 10:45.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1909".

Lunation 250 / 1203

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 250 of Meeus index or 1203 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 58 minutes and it is 1 hour and 45 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 4 hours and 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠177.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠177.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠201.8°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 20 April 2020 at 19:01 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 May 2020 at 03:03 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 405 427 km

The Moon is 405 427 km (251 921 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 656 km (223 480 mi).

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 13 April 2020 at 02:58 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 27 April 2020 at 17:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 13 April 2020 at 21:03 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-23.805° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠23.935° at the point of next northern standstill on 28 April 2020 at 15:23 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

20 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 23 April 2020 at 02:26 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