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 7% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 16 March 2020 at 09:34.

Pink Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2020 after 17 days on 8 April 2020 at 02:35.

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 ∠1787"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1787" and ∠1926".

Lunation 249 / 1202

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 249 of Meeus index or 1202 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 56 minutes and it is 58 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2020. 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 5 hours and 12 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 51 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠152.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠152.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠177.9°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 10 March 2020 at 06:33 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 24 March 2020 at 15:23 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 401 073 km

The Moon is 401 073 km (249 215 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 690 km (252 705 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 17 March 2020 at 01:00 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 31 March 2020 at 16:51 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 17 March 2020 at 14:07 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-23.540° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠23.702° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 April 2020 at 09:12 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 24 March 2020 at 09:28 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