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 2% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ∠17° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 19 July 2014 at 02:08.

Sturgeon Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2014 after 16 days on 10 August 2014 at 18:09.

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 ∠1780"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1780" and ∠1889".

Lunation 179 / 1132

The Moon is 28 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

12 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 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 28 July 2014 at 03:27 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 402 632 km

The Moon is 402 632 km (250 184 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 570 km (252 631 mi).

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 18 July 2014 at 21:21 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 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 after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 23 July 2014 at 15:36 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.934° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.827° at the point of next southern standstill on 7 August 2014 at 04:26 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

19 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 1 day

In 1 day 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