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 3% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 leaving the last ∠3° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 2 June 2021 at 07:24.

Strawberry Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2021 after 16 days on 24 June 2021 at 18:40.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1890".

Lunation 264 / 1217

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 264 of Meeus index or 1217 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 53 minutes and it is 1 hour and 29 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 9 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 54 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠178.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠178.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠202.3°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 02:27 about 13 days since last perigee on 26 May 2021 at 01:52 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next perigee on 23 June 2021 at 09:58 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 406 230 km

This apogee Moon is 406 230 km (252 420 mi) away from Earth. It is 822 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 479 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 26 May 2021 at 19:38 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 9 June 2021 at 16:42 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 28 May 2021 at 19:21 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.647° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.640° at the point of next northern standstill on 12 June 2021 at 04:11 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

26 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 10 June 2021 at 10:53 in ♊ Gemini 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