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

Waning Crescent in Leo

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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 17 August 2014 at 12:26.

Harvest Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2014 after 15 days on 9 September 2014 at 01:38.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1898".

Lunation 180 / 1133

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 180 of Meeus index or 1133 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 31 minutes and it is 30 minutes shorter 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 47 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 16 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠169.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠169.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠192.1°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 06:09 about 13 days since last perigee on 10 August 2014 at 17:43 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next perigee on 8 September 2014 at 03:29 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 406 523 km

This apogee Moon is 406 523 km (252 602 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 115 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 186 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 15 August 2014 at 00:18 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 29 August 2014 at 13:14 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 19 August 2014 at 22:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.750° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.641° at the point of next southern standstill on 3 September 2014 at 13:10 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 25 August 2014 at 14:13 in ♌ Leo 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