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

Waning Crescent in Cancer

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 29% 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 18 September 2068 at 10:16.

Hunter Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2068 after 20 days on 11 October 2068 at 01:39.

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 ∠1829"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1829" and ∠1911".

Lunation 849 / 1802

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 849 of Meeus index or 1802 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.68 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 20 minutes and it is 1 hour and 9 minutes shorter 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 3 hours and 36 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 27 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠160.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠160.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠183.9°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 12 September 2068 at 00:17 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 September 2068 at 00:00 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 391 996 km

The Moon is 391 996 km (243 575 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 613 km (252 658 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 16 September 2068 at 02:30 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 September 2068 at 14:29 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 17 September 2068 at 21:08 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.889° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.769° at the point of next southern standstill on 2 October 2068 at 15:38 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 26 September 2068 at 10:48 in ♎ Libra 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