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 28% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 27 August 2043 at 13:09.

Harvest Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2043 after 20 days on 19 September 2043 at 01:47.

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 ∠1957"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1957" and ∠1900".

Lunation 539 / 1492

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 539 of Meeus index or 1492 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 55 minutes and it is 3 hours 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 49 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 20 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠57.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠57.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠88.7°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 26 August 2043 at 13:38 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 10 September 2043 at 03:40 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 366 284 km

The Moon is 366 284 km (227 598 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 492 km (251 340 mi).

Moon before descending node

6 days after ascending node on 22 August 2043 at 23:42 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 4 September 2043 at 23:58 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 09:18 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠28.661°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-28.703° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 12 September 2043 at 11:52.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 3 September 2043 at 13:17 in ♍ Virgo 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