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 13% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 1 August 2002 at 10:22.

Sturgeon Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2002 after 17 days on 22 August 2002 at 22:29.

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 ∠1856"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1856" and ∠1892".

Lunation 31 / 984

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 31 of Meeus index or 984 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 49 minutes and it is 54 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 3 hours and 55 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 14 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠300.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠300.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠324.8°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 30 July 2002 at 01:45 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 August 2002 at 23:32 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 386 217 km

The Moon is 386 217 km (239 984 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 928 km (225 513 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 4 August 2002 at 11:03 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 17 August 2002 at 02:54 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 22 July 2002 at 19:08 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.053° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠25.104° at the point of next northern standstill on 6 August 2002 at 06:59 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

1 day 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 3 days

In 3 days on 8 August 2002 at 19:15 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