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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 4% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♑ Capricorn later.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 6 January 2021 at 09:37.

Wolf Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2021 after 17 days on 28 January 2021 at 19:16.

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 ∠1936"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1936" and ∠1951".

Lunation 259 / 1212

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 259 of Meeus index or 1212 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes and it is 1 hour and 21 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length same as the mean

The length of the current synodic month is equal to the mean synodic month length. It is %hours_to_shortest% and %minutes_to_shortest% longer than the 21st century's shortest and %hours_to_longest% and %minutes_to_longest% shorter than the 21st century's longest synodic months.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠30.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠30.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠53.8°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 9 January 2021 at 15:39 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 21 January 2021 at 13:11 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 370 266 km

The Moon is 370 266 km (230 073 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 361 km (251 258 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 10 January 2021 at 20:15 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 24 January 2021 at 21:47 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 30 December 2020 at 07:53 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.868° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-24.870° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 January 2021 at 08:18 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 13 January 2021 at 05:00 in ♑ Capricorn 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