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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 24% 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 in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 21 March 2044 at 16:52.

Pink Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2044 after 18 days on 12 April 2044 at 09:39.

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 ∠1794"

Lunar disc appears visually 7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1794" and ∠1924".

Lunation 546 / 1499

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 546 of Meeus index or 1499 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.55 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 14 minutes and it is 2 hours and 58 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 30 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 33 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠272.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠272.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠304.8°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 21 March 2044 at 01:56 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 2 April 2044 at 02:16 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 399 482 km

The Moon is 399 482 km (248 227 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 395 km (228 289 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 13 March 2044 at 13:10 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 27 March 2044 at 23:51 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 21 March 2044 at 10:24 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.641° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.596° at the point of next northern standstill on 3 April 2044 at 22:19 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 29 March 2044 at 09:26 in ♈ Aries 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