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 leaving the last ∠1° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♊ Gemini later.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 2 June 2051 at 02:15.

Strawberry Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2051 after 16 days on 24 June 2051 at 06:14.

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 ∠1945"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1945" and ∠1890".

Lunation 635 / 1588

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 635 of Meeus index or 1588 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 27 minutes and it is 46 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2051. 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 4 hours and 17 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 52 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠23.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠23.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠43.2°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 6 June 2051 at 01:20 in ♉ Taurus 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 17 June 2051 at 22:14 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 368 524 km

The Moon is 368 524 km (228 990 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 346 km (251 249 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 5 June 2051 at 14:37 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 19 June 2051 at 06:50 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 27 May 2051 at 03:09 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.213° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠19.227° at the point of next northern standstill on 9 June 2051 at 02:11 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 8 June 2051 at 18:56 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