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 35% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 is entering ♈ Aries

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 2 June 2070 at 01:26.

Strawberry Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2070 after 20 days on 23 June 2070 at 16:57.

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 ∠1910"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1910" and ∠1891".

Lunation 870 / 1823

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 870 of Meeus index or 1823 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.3 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 16 minutes and it is 26 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 5 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠350.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠350.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠5.3°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 25 May 2070 at 10:55 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 8 June 2070 at 10:48 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 375 319 km

The Moon is 375 319 km (233 212 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 376 km (222 063 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 21 May 2070 at 18:54 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 5 June 2070 at 03:55 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 26 May 2070 at 17:02 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.834° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.846° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 June 2070 at 03:14 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

12 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 8 June 2070 at 18:24 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