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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 6% 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 3 May 2051 at 19:30.

Flower Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2051 after 17 days on 25 May 2051 at 17:35.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1901".

Lunation 634 / 1587

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 634 of Meeus index or 1587 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 30 minutes and it is 3 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 4 hours and 14 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 55 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠6.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠6.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠23.1°.

Moon before perigee

14 days since point of apogee on 23 April 2051 at 15:59 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 9 May 2051 at 01:26 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 363 487 km

The Moon is 363 487 km (225 860 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 140 km (223 781 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 25 April 2051 at 19:39 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 9 May 2051 at 06:46 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 29 April 2051 at 20:50 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.162° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.181° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 May 2051 at 15:20 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 10 May 2051 at 10:29 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