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

Waning Crescent in Cancer

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 9% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 28 July 2024 at 02:51.

Sturgeon Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2024 after 18 days on 19 August 2024 at 18:26.

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 ∠1867"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1867" and ∠1891".

Lunation 303 / 1256

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 303 of Meeus index or 1256 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.51 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 16 minutes and it is 2 hours and 27 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠93.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠93.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠127.3°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 24 July 2024 at 05:43 in ♓ Pisces 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 9 August 2024 at 01:32 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 383 891 km

The Moon is 383 891 km (238 539 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 298 km (251 841 mi).

Moon after ascending node

6 days after ascending node on 26 July 2024 at 05:33 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 9 August 2024 at 01:06 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 05:59 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠28.455°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-28.546° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 15 August 2024 at 20:10.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 4 August 2024 at 11:13 in ♌ Leo 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