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 26% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 ∠13° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 4 September 2026 at 07:51.

Harvest Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2026 after 20 days on 26 September 2026 at 16:49.

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 ∠1970"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1970" and ∠1904".

Lunation 329 / 1282

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 329 of Meeus index or 1282 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 50 minutes and it is 2 hours and 33 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 2 hours and 54 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 15 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠36.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠36.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠61.3°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 20:26 about 15 days since last apogee on 22 August 2026 at 08:20 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 19 September 2026 at 03:00 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 368 255 km

This perigee Moon is 368 255 km (228 823 mi) away from Earth. It is 5 747 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 2 101 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 27 August 2026 at 18:47 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 9 September 2026 at 19:17 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 5 September 2026 at 06:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.109° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.065° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 September 2026 at 18:54 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

9 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 11 September 2026 at 03:27 in ♍ Virgo 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