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

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 12 June 2031 at 02:20.

Buck Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2031 after 17 days on 4 July 2031 at 19:01.

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 ∠1796"

Lunar disc appears visually 5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1796" and ∠1889".

Lunation 388 / 1341

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 388 of Meeus index or 1341 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 7 minutes and it is 9 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 23 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 40 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠139.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠139.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠165.9°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 6 June 2031 at 12:11 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 21 June 2031 at 11:25 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 399 150 km

The Moon is 399 150 km (248 020 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 452 km (252 558 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♉ Taurus at 09:18 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 1 July 2031 at 18:35 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 5 June 2031 at 17:57 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.099° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠21.105° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 June 2031 at 02:22 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 19 June 2031 at 22:25 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