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

Waning Crescent in Leo

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 7% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 26 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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠14° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 3 September 2018 at 02:37.

Harvest Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2018 after 17 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 ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1904".

Lunation 230 / 1183

The Moon is 26 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

15 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 day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 8 September 2018 at 01:21 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 363 634 km

The Moon is 363 634 km (225 952 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 355 km (224 536 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 6 September 2018 at 22:42 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 20 September 2018 at 09:30 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 5 September 2018 at 06:56 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.837° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.909° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 September 2018 at 09:35 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 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