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

Waning Crescent in Capricorn

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 27% 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♒ Aquarius later.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 17 March 2028 at 23:23.

Pink Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2028 after 19 days on 9 April 2028 at 10:27.

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 ∠1784"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1784" and ∠1926".

Lunation 348 / 1301

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 348 of Meeus index or 1301 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 54 minutes and it is 2 hours and 38 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 5 hours and 10 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 53 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠186.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠186.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠212.1°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 10 March 2028 at 08:23 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 March 2028 at 23:24 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 401 793 km

The Moon is 401 793 km (249 663 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 096 km (252 336 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♑ Capricorn at 16:19 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 3 April 2028 at 22:08 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 17 March 2028 at 10:25 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.380° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.235° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 April 2028 at 03:04 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 16:19 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 26 March 2028 at 04:31 in ♈ Aries 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