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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 8% 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠20° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 9 July 2004 at 07:34.

Buck Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2004 after 17 days on 31 July 2004 at 18:05.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1888".

Lunation 55 / 1008

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 55 of Meeus index or 1008 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.62 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 57 minutes and it is 57 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 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 50 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠181.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠181.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠205.1°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 21:08 about 12 days since last perigee on 1 July 2004 at 23:00 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 30 July 2004 at 06:25 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 406 192 km

This apogee Moon is 406 192 km (252 396 mi) away from Earth. It is 784 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 517 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 11 July 2004 at 00:59 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 25 July 2004 at 11:29 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 2 July 2004 at 03:43 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.538° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠27.543° at the point of next northern standstill on 15 July 2004 at 20:46 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 17 July 2004 at 11:24 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