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

Waning Crescent in Cancer

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 17 July 2082 at 22:58.

Sturgeon Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2082 after 16 days on 8 August 2082 at 14:33.

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 ∠1838"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1838" and ∠1889".

Lunation 1020 / 1973

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1020 of Meeus index or 1973 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 38 minutes and it is 1 hour and 14 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 2 hours and 6 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 3 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠265.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠265.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠298.1°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 17 July 2082 at 16:24 in ♈ Aries 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 29 July 2082 at 23:55 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 389 901 km

The Moon is 389 901 km (242 273 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 196 km (228 786 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 13 July 2082 at 02:53 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 27 July 2082 at 09:04 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 22 July 2082 at 18:54 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.898° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.934° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 August 2082 at 16:48 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 25 July 2082 at 15:54 in ♋ Cancer 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