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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 12% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 26 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

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 ∠2° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 27 April 2046 at 23:30.

Flower Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2046 after 17 days on 20 May 2046 at 03:15.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1903".

Lunation 572 / 1525

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 572 of Meeus index or 1525 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes and it is 2 hours and 38 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 2 hours and 20 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 43 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠209.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠209.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠239.2°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 1 May 2046 at 03:41 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 16 May 2046 at 23:31 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 404 900 km

The Moon is 404 900 km (251 593 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 910 km (227 366 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 28 April 2046 at 02:09 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 12 May 2046 at 07:55 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 24 April 2046 at 09:26 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.852° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.750° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 May 2046 at 23:01 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

4 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 6 May 2046 at 02:56 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