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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

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 in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠6° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 31 March 2016 at 15:17.

Pink Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2016 after 19 days on 22 April 2016 at 05:24.

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 ∠1890"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1890" and ∠1919".

Lunation 200 / 1153

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 200 of Meeus index or 1153 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 29 minutes and it is 1 hour and 23 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 15 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 54 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠339.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠339.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠355.6°.

Moon before perigee

7 days since point of apogee on 25 March 2016 at 14:16 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 7 April 2016 at 17:36 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 379 184 km

The Moon is 379 184 km (235 614 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 164 km (221 931 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 22 March 2016 at 12:59 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 5 April 2016 at 17:27 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 30 March 2016 at 22:12 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.239° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.288° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 April 2016 at 12:12 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 7 April 2016 at 11:24 in ♈ Aries 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