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

Waning Crescent in Cancer

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 30% 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 30 August 2021 at 07:13.

Harvest Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2021 after 19 days on 20 September 2021 at 23:55.

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 ∠1780"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1780" and ∠1902".

Lunation 267 / 1220

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 267 of Meeus index or 1220 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 2 minutes and it is 48 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 1 hour and 42 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 27 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠264.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠264.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠297.8°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 30 August 2021 at 02:22 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 11 September 2021 at 10:05 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 402 589 km

The Moon is 402 589 km (250 157 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 464 km (228 953 mi).

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 30 August 2021 at 05:13 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 12 September 2021 at 16:35 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 18 August 2021 at 22:24 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.761° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠25.868° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 September 2021 at 00:23 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 7 September 2021 at 00:52 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