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 1% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 leaving the last ∠3° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♉ Taurus later.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 23 April 2060 at 18:53.

Flower Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2060 after 16 days on 15 May 2060 at 13:39.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1905".

Lunation 745 / 1698

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 745 of Meeus index or 1698 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 33 minutes and it is 20 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 11 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 58 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠358.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠358.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠13.7°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 14:53 about 14 days since last apogee on 14 April 2060 at 20:02 in ♎ Libra 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 12 May 2060 at 04:06 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 358 297 km

This perigee Moon is 358 297 km (222 635 mi) away from Earth. It is 4 211 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 12 059 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 16 April 2060 at 20:33 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 April 2060 at 05:58 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 21 April 2060 at 15:27 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.732° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.728° at the point of next northern standstill on 4 May 2060 at 05:51 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

26 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 30 April 2060 at 10:11 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