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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 12% 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 17 March 2028 at 23:23.

Pink Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2028 after 17 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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1925".

Lunation 348 / 1301

The Moon is 26 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 at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 23:24 about 12 days since last perigee on 10 March 2028 at 08:23 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 16 days until point of next perigee on 7 April 2028 at 16:02 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 406 096 km

This apogee Moon is 406 096 km (252 336 mi) away from Earth. It is 688 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 613 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 20 March 2028 at 16:19 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 3 April 2028 at 22:08 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

5 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 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.235° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 April 2028 at 03:04 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 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