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 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 21 May 2090 at 09:43.

Strawberry Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2090 after 15 days on 12 June 2090 at 05:18.

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 ∠1824"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1824" and ∠1893".

Lunation 1117 / 2070

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1117 of Meeus index or 2070 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.51 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 17 minutes and it is 2 hours and 35 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 27 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 42 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠246°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠246° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠280.8°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 22 May 2090 at 05:49 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 4 June 2090 at 21:08 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 393 041 km

The Moon is 393 041 km (244 224 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 767 km (229 763 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 23 May 2090 at 16:27 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 6 June 2090 at 01:10 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 16 May 2090 at 12:41 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.355° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.414° at the point of next northern standstill on 30 May 2090 at 23:17 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 29 May 2090 at 07:29 in ♊ Gemini 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