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 2% 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 passing about ∠13° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 15 May 2039 at 03:17.

Strawberry Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2039 after 16 days on 6 June 2039 at 18:48.

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 ∠1775"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1775" and ∠1896".

Lunation 486 / 1439

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 486 of Meeus index or 1439 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 3 minutes and it is 20 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2039. 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 3 hours and 19 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 44 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠151.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠151.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠176.2°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 9 May 2039 at 01:48 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 23 May 2039 at 12:06 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 403 716 km

The Moon is 403 716 km (250 857 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 489 km (252 581 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 10 May 2039 at 18:11 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 24 May 2039 at 18:40 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 12 May 2039 at 01:13 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.653° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠24.699° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 May 2039 at 10:06 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

23 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 23 May 2039 at 01:38 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