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 34% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 ∠9° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 12 September 2009 at 02:16.

Hunter Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2009 after 20 days on 4 October 2009 at 06:10.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1907".

Lunation 119 / 1072

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 119 of Meeus index or 1072 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 43 minutes and it is 2 hours and 6 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 1 minute shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 8 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠20.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠20.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠39.3°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 31 August 2009 at 11:04 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 16 September 2009 at 07:55 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 364 236 km

The Moon is 364 236 km (226 326 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 054 km (226 213 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 1 September 2009 at 03:18 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 14 September 2009 at 20:56 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 12 September 2009 at 04:36 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.289° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.188° at the point of next southern standstill on 25 September 2009 at 04:03 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 18 September 2009 at 18:44 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