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 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 in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠20° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 1 August 2048 at 14:30.

Sturgeon Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2048 after 16 days on 23 August 2048 at 18:07.

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 ∠1781"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1781" and ∠1892".

Lunation 600 / 1553

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 600 of Meeus index or 1553 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.58 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 55 minutes and it is 1 hour and 29 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 1 hour and 11 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 52 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠210.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠210.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠240.4°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 4 August 2048 at 17:05 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 20 August 2048 at 12:34 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 402 422 km

The Moon is 402 422 km (250 053 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 366 147 km (227 513 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 5 August 2048 at 13:07 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 19 August 2048 at 04:55 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 4 August 2048 at 20:01 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.656° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-23.557° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 August 2048 at 16:40 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 9 August 2048 at 17:59 in ♌ Leo 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