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

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠6° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 3 May 2021 at 19:50.

Flower Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2021 after 15 days on 26 May 2021 at 11:14.

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 ∠1772"

Lunar disc appears visually 7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1772" and ∠1900".

Lunation 263 / 1216

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 263 of Meeus index or 1216 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.69 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 29 minutes and it is 36 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2021. 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 45 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠154.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠154.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠178.9°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 27 April 2021 at 15:24 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 day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 11 May 2021 at 21:54 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 404 562 km

The Moon is 404 562 km (251 383 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 512 km (252 595 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 29 April 2021 at 09:18 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 13 May 2021 at 10:29 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 1 May 2021 at 09:37 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.591° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.640° at the point of next northern standstill on 15 May 2021 at 22:25 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

24 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 1 day

In 1 day on 11 May 2021 at 19:00 in ♉ Taurus 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