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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 1% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 28 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

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.

7 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 7 days on 11 June 2012 at 10:41.

Buck Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2012 after 15 days on 3 July 2012 at 18:52.

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 ∠1777"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1777" and ∠1888".

Lunation 153 / 1106

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 153 of Meeus index or 1106 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes and it is 1 hour and 53 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠191.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠191.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠217.1°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 16 June 2012 at 01:24 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 July 2012 at 18:01 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 403 364 km

The Moon is 403 364 km (250 639 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 363 km (225 162 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 17 June 2012 at 15:43 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 1 July 2012 at 05:45 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon at northern standstill

At 17:37 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠21.721°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-21.701° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 2 July 2012 at 03:33.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 19 June 2012 at 15:02 in ♊ Gemini 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