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 7% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 leaving the last ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 15 August 2017 at 01:15.

Harvest Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2017 after 17 days on 6 September 2017 at 07:03.

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 ∠1953"

Lunar disc appears visually 3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1953" and ∠1896".

Lunation 217 / 1170

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 217 of Meeus index or 1170 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 45 minutes and it is 2 hours and 15 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 3 hours and 59 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 10 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠27.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠27.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠49.5°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 18 August 2017 at 13:14 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 30 August 2017 at 11:25 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 366 952 km

The Moon is 366 952 km (228 013 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 307 km (251 225 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 8 August 2017 at 10:56 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 21 August 2017 at 10:34 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 18 August 2017 at 06:50 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.381° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.393° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 September 2017 at 02:03 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 21 August 2017 at 18:30 in ♌ Leo 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