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 5% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 26 July 2046 at 03:19.

Sturgeon Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2046 after 16 days on 16 August 2046 at 14:50.

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 ∠1896"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1896" and ∠1890".

Lunation 575 / 1528

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 575 of Meeus index or 1528 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 47 minutes and it is 47 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 57 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 12 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠304.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠304.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠328°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 23 July 2046 at 10:37 in ♈ Aries 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 August 2046 at 09:16 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 377 984 km

The Moon is 377 984 km (234 868 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 170 km (225 042 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 18 July 2046 at 17:49 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 2 August 2046 at 00:47 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 29 July 2046 at 22:44 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.730° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.723° at the point of next southern standstill on 11 August 2046 at 15:06 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 2 August 2046 at 10:25 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