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 2% 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 4 October 2015 at 21:06.

Hunter Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2015 after 16 days on 27 October 2015 at 12:05.

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 8.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1922".

Lunation 194 / 1147

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 194 of Meeus index or 1147 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.73 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 24 minutes and it is 17 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 4 hours and 40 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 23 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠169.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠169.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠192.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 13:17 about 13 days since last perigee on 28 September 2015 at 01:46 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 26 October 2015 at 12:59 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 406 389 km

This apogee Moon is 406 389 km (252 518 mi) away from Earth. It is 981 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 320 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♎ Libra at 10:54 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next descending node later on 25 October 2015 at 07:37 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 3 October 2015 at 23:55 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.140° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.190° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 October 2015 at 18:31 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 10:54 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 13 October 2015 at 00:06 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