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 29% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 2 September 2056 at 05:43.

Harvest Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2056 after 19 days on 23 September 2056 at 19:34.

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 ∠1803"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1803" and ∠1903".

Lunation 700 / 1653

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 700 of Meeus index or 1653 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.42 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 59 minutes and it is 46 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 2 hours and 45 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 24 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠289.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠289.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠317.3°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 31 August 2056 at 14:03 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 12 September 2056 at 10:34 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 397 583 km

The Moon is 397 583 km (247 047 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 364 705 km (226 617 mi).

Moon before ascending node

13 days after descending node on 22 August 2056 at 03:18 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 5 September 2056 at 11:57 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon at northern standstill

At 19:42 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠22.139°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-22.234° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 17 September 2056 at 16:12.

Draconic month

26 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 9 September 2056 at 17:47 in ♍ Virgo 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