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 23% 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 1 December 2007 at 12:44.

Cold Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2007 after 19 days on 24 December 2007 at 01:16.

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 ∠1781"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1781" and ∠1947".

Lunation 97 / 1050

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 97 of Meeus index or 1050 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 37 minutes and it is 40 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2007. 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 5 hours and 53 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 10 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠183.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠183.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠209.6°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 24 November 2007 at 00:12 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 December 2007 at 16:54 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 402 385 km

The Moon is 402 385 km (250 030 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 235 km (252 423 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 30 November 2007 at 23:09 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 15 December 2007 at 13:15 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 26 November 2007 at 03:58 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.958° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.906° at the point of next southern standstill on 10 December 2007 at 09:41 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 9 December 2007 at 17:40 in ♐ Sagittarius 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