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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 40% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 23 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♓ Pisces later.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 3 May 2070 at 13:11.

Flower Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2070 after 20 days on 25 May 2070 at 01:37.

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 ∠1852"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1852" and ∠1902".

Lunation 869 / 1822

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 869 of Meeus index or 1822 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 38 minutes and it is 1 hour 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 6 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 3 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠333.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠333.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠350.2°.

Moon after apogee

6 days since point of apogee on 28 April 2070 at 06:11 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 11 May 2070 at 01:00 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 386 950 km

The Moon is 386 950 km (240 440 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 790 km (222 320 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 24 April 2070 at 13:41 in ♎ Libra 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 8 May 2070 at 19:39 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

5 days since the last southern standstill on 29 April 2070 at 10:16 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.761° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.793° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 May 2070 at 15:52 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 10 May 2070 at 11:08 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