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 1% 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 7 July 2026 at 19:29.

Buck Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2026 after 16 days on 29 July 2026 at 14:36.

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 ∠1969"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1969" and ∠1888".

Lunation 327 / 1280

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 327 of Meeus index or 1280 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.28 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 6 hours and 49 minutes and it is 1 hour and 4 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2026. 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 55 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 14 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠2.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠2.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠18°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 07:50 about 15 days since last apogee on 28 June 2026 at 07:11 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 25 July 2026 at 16:45 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 359 111 km

This perigee Moon is 359 111 km (223 141 mi) away from Earth. It is 3 397 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 11 245 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 4 July 2026 at 07:51 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 17 July 2026 at 00:27 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 12 July 2026 at 15:18 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.033° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.067° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 July 2026 at 03:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 14 July 2026 at 09:43 in ♋ Cancer 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