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 21% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ∠9° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 21 May 2052 at 18:15.

Strawberry Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2052 after 18 days on 12 June 2052 at 10:27.

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 ∠1942"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1942" and ∠1894".

Lunation 647 / 1600

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 647 of Meeus index or 1600 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.31 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 29 minutes and it is 29 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 5 hours and 15 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 54 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠352.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠352.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠7.2°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 13 May 2052 at 20:41 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 May 2052 at 00:39 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 369 138 km

The Moon is 369 138 km (229 372 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 494 km (222 136 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♈ Aries at 19:07 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 6 June 2052 at 13:15 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 16 May 2052 at 13:00 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.443° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.475° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 May 2052 at 16:35 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 28 May 2052 at 10:50 in ♊ Gemini 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