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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 31% 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 in ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 17 August 2014 at 12:26.

Harvest Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2014 after 20 days on 9 September 2014 at 01:38.

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 ∠1816"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1816" and ∠1896".

Lunation 180 / 1133

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 180 of Meeus index or 1133 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 31 minutes and it is 30 minutes shorter 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 47 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 16 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠169.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠169.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠192.1°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 10 August 2014 at 17:43 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 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 24 August 2014 at 06:09 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 394 590 km

The Moon is 394 590 km (245 187 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 523 km (252 602 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 15 August 2014 at 00:18 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 29 August 2014 at 13:14 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 22:12 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.750°. Over the upcoming 15 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.641° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 3 September 2014 at 13:10.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 25 August 2014 at 14:13 in ♌ Leo 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