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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 5% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 27 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠17° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 26 April 2057 at 02:06.

Flower Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2057 after 17 days on 18 May 2057 at 19:02.

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 ∠1817"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1817" and ∠1904".

Lunation 708 / 1661

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 708 of Meeus index or 1661 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 1 minute and it is 38 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 2 hours and 17 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 46 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠117°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠117° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠148.6°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 21 April 2057 at 04:54 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 May 2057 at 19:52 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 394 389 km

The Moon is 394 389 km (245 062 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 919 km (252 226 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 23 April 2057 at 20:52 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 May 2057 at 22:16 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 24 April 2057 at 07:56 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-23.505° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠23.611° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 May 2057 at 14:10 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

20 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 2 days

In 2 days on 3 May 2057 at 16:32 in ♉ Taurus 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