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 18% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 is entering ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 12 August 2066 at 20:59.

Harvest Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2066 after 18 days on 4 September 2066 at 01:37.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1895".

Lunation 823 / 1776

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 823 of Meeus index or 1776 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.59 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 16 minutes and it is 1 hour and 18 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 32 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 31 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠207°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠207° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠236.4°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 05:19 about 12 days since last perigee on 4 August 2066 at 03:18 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 1 September 2066 at 01:49 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 405 122 km

This apogee Moon is 405 122 km (251 731 mi) away from Earth. It is 286 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 587 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♋ Cancer at 21:14 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 30 August 2066 at 14:05 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 15 August 2066 at 06:35 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.625° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.516° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 August 2066 at 07:59 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 21 August 2066 at 00:50 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