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

Waning Crescent in Aries

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 is entering ♈ Aries

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 12 May 2042 at 19:18.

Strawberry Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2042 after 17 days on 3 June 2042 at 20:48.

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 ∠1965"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1965" and ∠1897".

Lunation 523 / 1476

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 523 of Meeus index or 1476 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 36 minutes and it is 17 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2042. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 9 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 1 minute longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠15.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠15.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠33.6°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 09:30 about 15 days since last apogee on 1 May 2042 at 15:06 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 11 days until point of next apogee on 29 May 2042 at 07:12 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 362 606 km

This perigee Moon is 362 606 km (225 313 mi) away from Earth. It is 98 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 7 750 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♈ Aries at 06:49 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 31 May 2042 at 00:41 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 9 May 2042 at 06:02 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.181° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.143° at the point of next northern standstill on 21 May 2042 at 23:31 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 06:49 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 1 day

In 1 day on 19 May 2042 at 10:55 in ♉ Taurus 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