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 31% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 ∠3° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 1 September 2010 at 17:22.

Harvest Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2010 after 19 days on 23 September 2010 at 09:17.

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 ∠1916"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1916" and ∠1902".

Lunation 131 / 1084

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 131 of Meeus index or 1084 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.31 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes and it is 53 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2010. 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 5 hours and 22 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 47 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠349.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠349.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠4.6°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 25 August 2010 at 05:51 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 8 September 2010 at 04:00 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 374 148 km

The Moon is 374 148 km (232 485 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 193 km (221 949 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 20 August 2010 at 12:13 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 4 September 2010 at 00:16 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 2 September 2010 at 11:20 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.807° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.710° at the point of next southern standstill on 14 September 2010 at 23:47 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 8 September 2010 at 10:30 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