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 4% 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 ∠2° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 9 July 2004 at 07:34.

Buck Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2004 after 16 days on 31 July 2004 at 18:05.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1888".

Lunation 55 / 1008

The Moon is 27 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 after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 14 July 2004 at 21:08 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 July 2004 at 06:25 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 405 442 km

The Moon is 405 442 km (251 930 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 326 km (223 896 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 11 July 2004 at 00:59 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 9 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 at northern standstill

At 20:46 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠27.543°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-27.607° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 29 July 2004 at 13:12.

Draconic month

4 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 1 day

In 1 day 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