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

Waning Crescent in Libra

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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 10 October 2001 at 04:20.

Beaver Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2001 after 16 days on 1 November 2001 at 05:41.

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 ∠1961"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1961" and ∠1925".

Lunation 21 / 974

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 21 of Meeus index or 974 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 56 minutes and it is 2 hours and 21 minutes shorter 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 3 hours and 48 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 21 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠13.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠13.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠30.5°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 14 October 2001 at 23:02 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 October 2001 at 20:12 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 365 606 km

The Moon is 365 606 km (227 177 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 937 km (251 616 mi).

Moon before descending node

6 days after ascending node on 8 October 2001 at 22:32 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 21 October 2001 at 13:22 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 9 October 2001 at 18:46 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.937° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.041° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 October 2001 at 13:05 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 16 October 2001 at 19:23 in ♎ Libra 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