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

Waning Crescent in Aries

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 4% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 26 April 2076 at 06:41.

Flower Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2076 after 17 days on 18 May 2076 at 17:38.

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 ∠1904"

Lunar disc appears visually 0% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1904" and ∠1904".

Lunation 943 / 1896

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 943 of Meeus index or 1896 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 5 minutes and it is 1 hour and 17 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 40 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 30 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠48.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠48.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠78.4°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 26 April 2076 at 16:30 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 10 May 2076 at 07:16 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 376 531 km

The Moon is 376 531 km (233 966 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 248 km (251 188 mi).

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 23 April 2076 at 11:30 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 6 May 2076 at 13:36 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 24 April 2076 at 11:14 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.184° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠24.265° at the point of next northern standstill on 7 May 2076 at 18:28 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 3 May 2076 at 04:51 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