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

Waning Crescent in Capricorn

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 3% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 7 January 2010 at 10:40.

Wolf Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2010 after 16 days on 30 January 2010 at 06:18.

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 ∠1789"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1789" and ∠1951".

Lunation 123 / 1076

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 123 of Meeus index or 1076 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 9 minutes and it is 31 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2010. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 25 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 38 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠135.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠135.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠164.3°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 1 January 2010 at 20:36 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 17 January 2010 at 01:40 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 400 661 km

The Moon is 400 661 km (248 959 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 434 km (252 546 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 1 January 2010 at 12:30 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 14 January 2010 at 23:18 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 12 January 2010 at 08:33 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.796° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.783° at the point of next northern standstill on 26 January 2010 at 21:04 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 15 January 2010 at 07:11 in ♑ Capricorn 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