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 6% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 leaving the last ∠1° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 13 August 2028 at 11:45.

Harvest Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2028 after 16 days on 3 September 2028 at 23:48.

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 ∠1938"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1938" and ∠1896".

Lunation 353 / 1306

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 353 of Meeus index or 1306 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.32 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 42 minutes and it is 2 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 5 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠330.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠330.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠347.7°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 8 August 2028 at 12:54 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 21 August 2028 at 04:10 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 369 762 km

The Moon is 369 762 km (229 759 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 074 km (222 497 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♋ Cancer at 02:04 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 30 August 2028 at 20:39 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 15 August 2028 at 17:21 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.876° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.819° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 August 2028 at 06:28 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 20 August 2028 at 10:44 in ♌ Leo 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