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 1% 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 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 22 May 2022 at 18:43.

Strawberry Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2022 after 15 days on 14 June 2022 at 11:52.

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 ∠1789"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1789" and ∠1893".

Lunation 276 / 1229

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 276 of Meeus index or 1229 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 2 minutes and it is 20 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 2 hours and 18 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 45 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠126°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠126° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠155.2°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 17 May 2022 at 15:23 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 2 June 2022 at 01:14 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 400 680 km

The Moon is 400 680 km (248 971 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 191 km (252 395 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♉ Taurus at 02:33 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 12 June 2022 at 10:02 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 19 May 2022 at 01:21 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.964° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.943° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 June 2022 at 22:32 in ♋ Cancer.

New draconic month

At 02:33 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 30 May 2022 at 11:30 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