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 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♓ Pisces later.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 18 April 2074 at 09:22.

Flower Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2074 after 20 days on 11 May 2074 at 02:17.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1853"

Lunar disc appears visually 3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1853" and ∠1909".

Lunation 918 / 1871

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 918 of Meeus index or 1871 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.69 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 28 minutes and it is 31 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2074. 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 3 hours and 44 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 19 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠144°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠144° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠170.1°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 12 April 2074 at 14:37 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 27 April 2074 at 09:29 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 386 755 km

The Moon is 386 755 km (240 318 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 588 km (252 642 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 19 April 2074 at 03:12 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 3 May 2074 at 18:36 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 17 April 2074 at 01:07 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.642° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.782° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 May 2074 at 15:56 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

13 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 5 days

In 5 days on 26 April 2074 at 06:47 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