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

Waning Crescent in Pisces

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 4% 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 ♓ Pisces

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 16 March 2050 at 10:08.

Pink Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2050 after 16 days on 7 April 2050 at 08:12.

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 ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1926".

Lunation 620 / 1573

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 620 of Meeus index or 1573 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 37 minutes and it is 8 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2050. 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 3 hours and 7 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 2 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠5.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠5.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠21.6°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 17:48 about 15 days since last apogee on 6 March 2050 at 08:19 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 2 April 2050 at 21:09 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 359 625 km

This perigee Moon is 359 625 km (223 461 mi) away from Earth. It is 2 883 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 10 731 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 13 March 2050 at 20:52 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 26 March 2050 at 10:48 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon after southern standstill

5 days since the last southern standstill on 15 March 2050 at 22:17 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.702° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.614° at the point of next northern standstill on 28 March 2050 at 12:55 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 23 March 2050 at 00:41 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