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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 8 March 2056 at 15:31.

Worm Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2056 after 17 days on 31 March 2056 at 10:25.

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 ∠1831"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1831" and ∠1930".

Lunation 694 / 1647

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 694 of Meeus index or 1647 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 53 minutes and it is 5 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 4 hours and 9 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 54 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠113.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠113.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠147°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 3 March 2056 at 19:44 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 19 March 2056 at 13:34 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 391 471 km

The Moon is 391 471 km (243 249 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 082 km (252 328 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 11 March 2056 at 17:34 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 March 2056 at 07:57 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 10 March 2056 at 07:45 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.325° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.456° at the point of next northern standstill on 25 March 2056 at 00:14 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

14 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 16 March 2056 at 06:52 in ♓ Pisces 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