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

Waning Crescent in Taurus

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 17 May 2074 at 20:39.

Strawberry Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2074 after 15 days on 9 June 2074 at 09:27.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1894".

Lunation 919 / 1872

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 919 of Meeus index or 1872 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 57 minutes and it is 1 hour and 3 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 3 hours and 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 50 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠170.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠170.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠193.2°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 11:59 about 13 days since last perigee on 11 May 2074 at 01:01 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next perigee on 8 June 2074 at 10:20 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 406 578 km

This apogee Moon is 406 578 km (252 636 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 170 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 131 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 16 May 2074 at 05:00 in ♒ Aquarius 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 30 May 2074 at 19:46 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 14 May 2074 at 10:18 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.864° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.959° at the point of next northern standstill on 28 May 2074 at 22:31 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

20 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 1 day

In 1 day on 25 May 2074 at 22:44 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