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

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 9% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 3 June 2078 at 10:38.

Strawberry Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2078 after 17 days on 25 June 2078 at 10:22.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1890".

Lunation 969 / 1922

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 969 of Meeus index or 1922 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 53 minutes and it is 26 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2078. 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 4 hours and 51 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 18 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠11.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠11.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠29°.

Moon before perigee

14 days since point of apogee on 23 May 2078 at 17:11 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 8 June 2078 at 07:36 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 363 439 km

The Moon is 363 439 km (225 831 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 533 km (224 646 mi).

Moon before ascending node

13 days after descending node on 25 May 2078 at 11:12 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 8 June 2078 at 00:37 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 29 May 2078 at 11:05 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.084° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.059° at the point of next northern standstill on 11 June 2078 at 07:53 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

26 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 10 June 2078 at 01:49 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