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 26% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 ∠16° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 6 September 2023 at 22:21.

Harvest Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2023 after 19 days on 29 September 2023 at 09:57.

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 ∠1792"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1792" and ∠1905".

Lunation 292 / 1245

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 292 of Meeus index or 1245 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 2 minutes and it is 13 minutes shorter 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 3 hours and 18 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 45 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠179.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠179.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠202.9°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 30 August 2023 at 15:51 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 September 2023 at 15:42 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 399 937 km

The Moon is 399 937 km (248 509 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 289 km (252 456 mi).

Moon after ascending node

6 days after ascending node on 3 September 2023 at 07:44 in ♈ Aries 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 17 September 2023 at 19:18 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 8 September 2023 at 13:18 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.168° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.254° at the point of next southern standstill on 23 September 2023 at 03:42 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 15 September 2023 at 01:40 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