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 38% 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 is entering ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 11 July 2050 at 09:46.

Sturgeon Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2050 after 21 days on 3 August 2050 at 02:20.

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 ∠1929"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1929" and ∠1887".

Lunation 624 / 1577

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 624 of Meeus index or 1577 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 55 minutes and it is 1 hour and 36 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 11 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 52 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠104.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠104.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠137°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 7 July 2050 at 02:25 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 July 2050 at 20:27 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 371 540 km

The Moon is 371 540 km (230 864 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 717 km (252 101 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 30 June 2050 at 22:15 in ♏ Scorpio 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 13 July 2050 at 14:19 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 3 July 2050 at 03:14 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.482° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.446° at the point of next northern standstill on 15 July 2050 at 23:05 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 18 July 2050 at 21:17 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