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 8% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ∠18° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 5 May 2078 at 02:29.

Flower Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2078 after 17 days on 26 May 2078 at 20:23.

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 ∠1970"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1970" and ∠1900".

Lunation 968 / 1921

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 968 of Meeus index or 1921 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.34 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 12 minutes and it is 19 minutes longer 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 4 hours and 32 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 37 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠356.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠356.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠11.8°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 26 April 2078 at 10:18 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 11 May 2078 at 01:13 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 363 846 km

The Moon is 363 846 km (226 083 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 066 km (222 492 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 28 April 2078 at 04:45 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 11 May 2078 at 14:45 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 2 May 2078 at 05:32 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.108° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.103° at the point of next northern standstill on 14 May 2078 at 21:51 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 11 May 2078 at 17:56 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