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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 35% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♉ Taurus later.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 30 June 2043 at 02:53.

Buck Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2043 after 20 days on 22 July 2043 at 03:24.

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 ∠1963"

Lunar disc appears visually 4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1963" and ∠1887".

Lunation 537 / 1490

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 537 of Meeus index or 1490 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.3 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 16 minutes and it is 1 hour and 16 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 5 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠15.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠15.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠33.6°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 18 June 2043 at 23:28 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 4 July 2043 at 16:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 365 095 km

The Moon is 365 095 km (226 860 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 588 km (225 302 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 29 June 2043 at 18:46 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 12 July 2043 at 12:01 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

8 days since the last southern standstill on 22 June 2043 at 14:03 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.403° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.429° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 July 2043 at 19:20 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 6 July 2043 at 17:51 in ♋ Cancer 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