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 8% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 leaving the last ∠1° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 19 August 2022 at 04:36.

Harvest Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2022 after 16 days on 10 September 2022 at 09:59.

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 ∠1771"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1771" and ∠1898".

Lunation 279 / 1232

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 279 of Meeus index or 1232 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.6 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 22 minutes and it is 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 1 hour and 38 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 25 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠202°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠202° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠230.2°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 22 August 2022 at 21:53 in ♋ Cancer 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 7 September 2022 at 18:17 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 669 km

The Moon is 404 669 km (251 450 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 491 km (226 484 mi).

Moon after ascending node

6 days after ascending node on 18 August 2022 at 10:59 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 1 September 2022 at 21:12 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 22 August 2022 at 15:08 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.100° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.219° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 September 2022 at 13:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 27 August 2022 at 08:17 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