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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 11% 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♓ Pisces later.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 19 March 2036 at 18:39.

Pink Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2036 after 17 days on 10 April 2036 at 20:22.

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 ∠1780"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1780" and ∠1924".

Lunation 447 / 1400

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 447 of Meeus index or 1400 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 57 minutes and it is 3 hours and 21 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 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 50 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠223.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠223.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠258.5°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 21 March 2036 at 21:41 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 April 2036 at 09:36 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 402 702 km

The Moon is 402 702 km (250 227 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 619 km (229 049 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♒ Aquarius at 11:54 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 6 April 2036 at 19:59 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 20 March 2036 at 12:11 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.336° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠19.439° at the point of next northern standstill on 3 April 2036 at 13:10 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 27 March 2036 at 20:57 in ♈ Aries 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