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 29% 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 ∠15° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 10 September 2020 at 09:26.

Hunter Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2020 after 19 days on 1 October 2020 at 21:05.

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 ∠1853"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1853" and ∠1907".

Lunation 255 / 1208

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 255 of Meeus index or 1208 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 19 minutes and it is 12 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2020. 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 4 hours and 26 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 44 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠322.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠322.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠341.2°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 6 September 2020 at 06:31 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 18 September 2020 at 13:44 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 386 912 km

The Moon is 386 912 km (240 416 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 081 km (223 123 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 10 September 2020 at 23:05 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 23 September 2020 at 12:33 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon at northern standstill

At 05:25 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠24.353°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-24.458° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 24 September 2020 at 19:11.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 17 September 2020 at 11:00 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