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 23% 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 is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 19 March 2085 at 00:45.

Pink Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2085 after 19 days on 10 April 2085 at 03:41.

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 ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1925".

Lunation 1053 / 2006

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1053 of Meeus index or 2006 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.42 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 5 minutes and it is 17 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2085. 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 2 hours and 39 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 30 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠16.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠16.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠35.4°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 7 March 2085 at 14:41 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 23 March 2085 at 12:19 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 363 419 km

The Moon is 363 419 km (225 818 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 064 km (225 598 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 19 March 2085 at 14:38 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 1 April 2085 at 11:26 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 18 March 2085 at 07:54 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.502° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠24.388° at the point of next northern standstill on 31 March 2085 at 03:08 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 25 March 2085 at 16:37 in ♓ Pisces 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