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

Waning Crescent in Pisces

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ♓ Pisces

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♈ Aries later.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 25 March 2003 at 01:51.

Pink Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2003 after 16 days on 16 April 2003 at 19:36.

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 ∠1791"

Lunar disc appears visually 7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1791" and ∠1921".

Lunation 39 / 992

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 39 of Meeus index or 992 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 44 minutes and it is 12 minutes shorter 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 3 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠127.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠127.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠157.7°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 19 March 2003 at 18:57 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 4 April 2003 at 04:31 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 400 225 km

The Moon is 400 225 km (248 688 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 211 km (252 408 mi).

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 22 March 2003 at 17:37 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 5 April 2003 at 21:41 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon after southern standstill

6 days since the last southern standstill on 25 March 2003 at 11:01 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.258° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.383° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 April 2003 at 03:25 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

21 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 1 day

In 1 day on 1 April 2003 at 19:19 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