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 21% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ∠0° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 14 September 2006 at 11:15.

Hunter Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2006 after 19 days on 7 October 2006 at 03:13.

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 ∠1812"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1812" and ∠1909".

Lunation 82 / 1035

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 82 of Meeus index or 1035 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.69 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 35 minutes and it is 54 minutes shorter 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 3 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠158.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠158.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠182.3°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 8 September 2006 at 03:07 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 September 2006 at 05:21 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 395 506 km

The Moon is 395 506 km (245 756 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 500 km (252 587 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 8 September 2006 at 11:01 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 22 September 2006 at 03:42 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 15 September 2006 at 01:28 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.725° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.712° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 September 2006 at 20:31 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 22 September 2006 at 11:45 in ♍ Virgo 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