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

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 4% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 27 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 16 May 2028 at 10:43.

Strawberry Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2028 after 15 days on 7 June 2028 at 06:09.

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 ∠1820"

Lunar disc appears visually 4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1820" and ∠1895".

Lunation 350 / 1303

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 350 of Meeus index or 1303 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 29 minutes and it is 2 hours and 18 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 15 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 54 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠243.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠243.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠278.2°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 17 May 2028 at 09:55 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 31 May 2028 at 06:18 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 393 732 km

The Moon is 393 732 km (244 654 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 758 km (229 757 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 13 May 2028 at 20:46 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 28 May 2028 at 00:41 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 11 May 2028 at 03:45 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.961° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.917° at the point of next northern standstill on 25 May 2028 at 14:09 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

8 days 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 1 day

In 1 day on 24 May 2028 at 08:16 in ♊ Gemini 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