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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 4% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 27 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 is entering ♈ Aries

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 10 April 2072 at 08:53.

Flower Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2072 after 15 days on 2 May 2072 at 11:34.

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 ∠1791"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1791" and ∠1911".

Lunation 893 / 1846

The Moon is 27 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 after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 12 April 2072 at 22:33 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 April 2072 at 15:34 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 400 223 km

The Moon is 400 223 km (248 687 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 523 km (228 368 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 15 April 2072 at 04:07 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 April 2072 at 14:06 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

7 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 6 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

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

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day 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