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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 25% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 24 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 18 March 2009 at 17:47.

Pink Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2009 after 19 days on 9 April 2009 at 14:56.

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 ∠1775"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1775" and ∠1926".

Lunation 113 / 1066

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 113 of Meeus index or 1066 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.6 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 31 minutes and it is 3 hours and 14 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 1 hour and 47 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 16 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠246.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠246.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠282.4°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 19 March 2009 at 13:16 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 2 April 2009 at 02:31 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 403 735 km

The Moon is 403 735 km (250 869 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 370 014 km (229 916 mi).

Moon before ascending node

13 days after descending node on 8 March 2009 at 04:05 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 22 March 2009 at 02:12 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 18 March 2009 at 05:07 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.896° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.780° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 April 2009 at 02:50 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 26 March 2009 at 16:06 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