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

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 26% 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 in ♉ Taurus

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 19 July 2014 at 02:08.

Sturgeon Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2014 after 20 days on 10 August 2014 at 18:09.

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 ∠1848"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1848" and ∠1888".

Lunation 179 / 1132

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 179 of Meeus index or 1132 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.61 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 33 minutes and it is 58 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 49 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 14 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠144.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠144.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠169.2°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 13 July 2014 at 08:27 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 28 July 2014 at 03:27 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 387 958 km

The Moon is 387 958 km (241 066 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 570 km (252 631 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 18 July 2014 at 21:21 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 2 August 2014 at 11:26 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 10 July 2014 at 17:29 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.982° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.934° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 July 2014 at 15:36 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 26 July 2014 at 22:42 in ♋ Cancer 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