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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

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 in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 3 March 2005 at 17:36.

Worm Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2005 after 17 days on 25 March 2005 at 20:58.

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 ∠1961"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1961" and ∠1933".

Lunation 63 / 1016

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 63 of Meeus index or 1016 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 42 minutes and it is 40 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 2 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 7 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠17.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠17.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠36.2°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 03:42 about 15 days since last apogee on 20 February 2005 at 04:59 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 11 days until point of next apogee on 19 March 2005 at 22:54 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 363 235 km

This perigee Moon is 363 235 km (225 704 mi) away from Earth. It is 727 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 7 121 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 28 February 2005 at 00:10 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 12 March 2005 at 17:37 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 5 March 2005 at 04:40 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.257° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.325° at the point of next northern standstill on 18 March 2005 at 08:25 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 10 March 2005 at 09:10 in ♓ Pisces 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