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 4% 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 in ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 23 June 2011 at 11:48.

Buck Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2011 after 15 days on 15 July 2011 at 06:40.

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 ∠1825"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1825" and ∠1887".

Lunation 141 / 1094

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 141 of Meeus index or 1094 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 51 minutes and it is 2 hours and 5 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 53 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 16 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠248.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠248.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠283.1°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 24 June 2011 at 04:13 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 7 July 2011 at 14:04 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 392 690 km

The Moon is 392 690 km (244 006 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 566 km (229 638 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 15 June 2011 at 18:35 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 30 June 2011 at 04:14 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon at northern standstill

At 17:46 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠23.399°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-23.383° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 12 July 2011 at 16:51.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the first to the middle part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 1 July 2011 at 08:54 in ♋ Cancer 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