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 15% 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 ∠15° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 18 May 2055 at 11:30.

Strawberry Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2055 after 17 days on 9 June 2055 at 11:36.

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 ∠1773"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1773" and ∠1895".

Lunation 684 / 1637

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 684 of Meeus index or 1637 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.57 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 40 minutes and it is 2 hours and 22 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 56 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 7 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠221.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠221.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠254.3°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 20 May 2055 at 18:43 in ♓ Pisces 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 5 June 2055 at 06:32 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 404 307 km

The Moon is 404 307 km (251 225 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 013 km (228 673 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 17 May 2055 at 07:26 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 31 May 2055 at 13:01 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 14 May 2055 at 15:50 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.280° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.367° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 May 2055 at 04:41 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 26 May 2055 at 12:57 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