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 7% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ∠8° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 27 July 2054 at 21:28.

Sturgeon Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2054 after 16 days on 18 August 2054 at 09:22.

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 ∠1942"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1942" and ∠1891".

Lunation 674 / 1627

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 674 of Meeus index or 1627 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.3 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 14 minutes and it is 16 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2054. 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 5 hours and 30 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 39 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠336°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠336° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠352.3°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 22 July 2054 at 05:49 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 4 August 2054 at 04:47 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 369 042 km

The Moon is 369 042 km (229 312 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 668 km (222 245 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 22 July 2054 at 09:02 in ♒ Aquarius 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 4 August 2054 at 20:23 in ♌ Leo.

Moon at northern standstill

At 11:52 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠19.139°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-19.120° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 14 August 2054 at 09:17.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 3 August 2054 at 17:48 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