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 ∠22° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 23 May 2098 at 07:39.

Strawberry Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2098 after 15 days on 13 June 2098 at 20:25.

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 ∠1896"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1896" and ∠1893".

Lunation 1216 / 2169

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1216 of Meeus index or 2169 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.41 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 51 minutes and it is 2 hours and 8 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 2 hours and 53 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 16 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠294.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠294.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠320.4°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 21 May 2098 at 09:03 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 2 June 2098 at 05:57 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 377 969 km

The Moon is 377 969 km (234 859 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 988 km (226 172 mi).

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 27 May 2098 at 09:11 in ♈ Aries 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 9 June 2098 at 01:58 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 18 May 2098 at 09:52 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.237° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.197° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 June 2098 at 09:59 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

2 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 30 May 2098 at 18:23 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