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

Waning Crescent in Cancer

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 24% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 24 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠14° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 3 September 2018 at 02:37.

Harvest Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2018 after 19 days on 25 September 2018 at 02:53.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1903".

Lunation 230 / 1183

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 230 of Meeus index or 1183 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.34 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 4 minutes and it is 1 hour and 41 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 4 hours and 40 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 29 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠11.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠11.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠28°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 23 August 2018 at 11:23 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 8 September 2018 at 01:21 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 364 248 km

The Moon is 364 248 km (226 333 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 355 km (224 536 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 24 August 2018 at 04:51 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 6 September 2018 at 22:42 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon at northern standstill

At 06:56 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠20.837°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-20.909° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 18 September 2018 at 09:35.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 9 September 2018 at 18:01 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