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 30% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 24 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 passing about ∠17° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 10 April 2072 at 08:53.

Flower Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2072 after 19 days on 2 May 2072 at 11:34.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1913".

Lunation 893 / 1846

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 893 of Meeus index or 1846 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 35 minutes and it is 3 hours and 13 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠217.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠217.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠250.1°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 22:33 about 11 days since last perigee on 1 April 2072 at 01:31 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 16 days until point of next perigee on 28 April 2072 at 15:34 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 404 911 km

This apogee Moon is 404 911 km (251 600 mi) away from Earth. It is 497 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 798 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 1 April 2072 at 07:46 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 15 April 2072 at 04:07 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 8 April 2072 at 21:40 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.355° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.447° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 April 2072 at 08:04 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 18 April 2072 at 11:57 in ♈ Aries 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