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 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 25 July 2008 at 18:42.

Sturgeon Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2008 after 17 days on 16 August 2008 at 21:16.

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 ∠1960"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1960" and ∠1890".

Lunation 105 / 1058

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 105 of Meeus index or 1058 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 54 minutes and it is 1 hour and 51 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 4 hours and 50 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 19 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠20.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠20.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠39.2°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 29 July 2008 at 23:24 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 10 August 2008 at 20:18 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 365 744 km

The Moon is 365 744 km (227 263 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 558 km (251 381 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 20 July 2008 at 03:27 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 2 August 2008 at 01:21 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 29 July 2008 at 06:17 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.598° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.611° at the point of next southern standstill on 11 August 2008 at 22:13 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 1 August 2008 at 10:13 in ♌ Leo 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