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 1% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 leaving the last ∠3° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 26 October 2013 at 23:41.

Beaver Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2013 after 15 days on 17 November 2013 at 15:16.

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 ∠1890"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1890" and ∠1934".

Lunation 170 / 1123

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 170 of Meeus index or 1123 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.51 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 15 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 29 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 40 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠285.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠285.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠315°.

Moon before perigee

7 days since point of apogee on 25 October 2013 at 14:25 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 November 2013 at 09:28 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 379 276 km

The Moon is 379 276 km (235 671 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 362 km (227 025 mi).

Moon before ascending node

13 days after descending node on 19 October 2013 at 21:47 in ♉ Taurus 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 3 November 2013 at 06:52 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 23 October 2013 at 09:13 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.509° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.511° at the point of next southern standstill on 6 November 2013 at 06:43 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

26 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 3 November 2013 at 12:50 in ♏ Scorpio 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