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 17% 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 in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 20 August 2068 at 00:16.

Harvest Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2068 after 19 days on 11 September 2068 at 17:19.

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 ∠1839"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1839" and ∠1898".

Lunation 848 / 1801

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 848 of Meeus index or 1801 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.61 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes and it is 1 hour and 46 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 1 hour and 50 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 13 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠133.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠133.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠160.5°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 14 August 2068 at 15:33 in ♓ Pisces 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 29 August 2068 at 20:38 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 389 732 km

The Moon is 389 732 km (242 168 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 437 km (252 548 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 20 August 2068 at 00:01 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 3 September 2068 at 12:48 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 21 August 2068 at 14:51 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.140° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.990° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 September 2068 at 09:10 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 27 August 2068 at 18:28 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