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 31% 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 leaving the last ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♓ Pisces later.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 20 April 2044 at 11:48.

Flower Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2044 after 19 days on 12 May 2044 at 00:16.

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 ∠1818"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1818" and ∠1908".

Lunation 547 / 1500

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 547 of Meeus index or 1500 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 16 minutes and it is 2 hours and 19 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 2 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠304.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠304.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠328.1°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 17 April 2044 at 20:46 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 29 April 2044 at 18:30 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 394 283 km

The Moon is 394 283 km (244 996 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 200 km (225 061 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 9 April 2044 at 20:15 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 24 April 2044 at 08:06 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

4 days since the last southern standstill on 17 April 2044 at 18:10 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.526° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.450° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 May 2044 at 05:01 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

25 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 5 days

In 5 days on 27 April 2044 at 19:42 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