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 20% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠25° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 4 April 2021 at 10:02.

Pink Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2021 after 19 days on 27 April 2021 at 03:31.

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 ∠1858"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1858" and ∠1916".

Lunation 262 / 1215

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 262 of Meeus index or 1215 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 10 minutes and it is 19 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 26 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 37 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠124.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠124.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠154.8°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 30 March 2021 at 06:12 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 14 April 2021 at 17:47 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 385 855 km

The Moon is 385 855 km (239 759 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 120 km (252 351 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 2 April 2021 at 02:41 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 16 April 2021 at 05:53 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 4 April 2021 at 02:08 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.412° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.532° at the point of next northern standstill on 18 April 2021 at 16:02 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

18 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 4 days

In 4 days on 12 April 2021 at 02:31 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