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

Waning Crescent in Virgo

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 3% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 27 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 27 September 2013 at 03:56.

Hunter Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2013 after 15 days on 18 October 2013 at 23:38.

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 ∠1834"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1834" and ∠1918".

Lunation 169 / 1122

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 169 of Meeus index or 1122 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 58 minutes and it is 43 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 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠249.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠249.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠285.3°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 27 September 2013 at 18:17 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 October 2013 at 23:06 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 390 861 km

The Moon is 390 861 km (242 870 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 813 km (229 791 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 22 September 2013 at 13:48 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 6 October 2013 at 22:08 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 26 September 2013 at 01:03 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.599° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.537° at the point of next southern standstill on 9 October 2013 at 23:52 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 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 5 October 2013 at 00:35 in ♎ Libra 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