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 26% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 ∠5° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 24 May 2068 at 08:00.

Strawberry Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2068 after 20 days on 15 June 2068 at 17:00.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1894".

Lunation 845 / 1798

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 845 of Meeus index or 1798 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 56 minutes and it is 1 hour and 12 minutes shorter 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 2 hours and 48 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 21 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠39.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠39.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠66°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 09:16 about 15 days since last apogee on 11 May 2068 at 03:18 in ♍ Virgo 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 7 June 2068 at 22:05 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 368 748 km

This perigee Moon is 368 748 km (229 129 mi) away from Earth. It is 6 240 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 1 608 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 17 May 2068 at 14:48 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 30 May 2068 at 13:21 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 18 May 2068 at 20:10 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.444° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.451° at the point of next northern standstill on 31 May 2068 at 17:47 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

8 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 4 days

In 4 days on 31 May 2068 at 04:03 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