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 8% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ∠4° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 24 October 2024 at 08:03.

Beaver Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2024 after 17 days on 15 November 2024 at 21:29.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1932".

Lunation 306 / 1259

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 306 of Meeus index or 1259 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 58 minutes and it is 24 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2024. 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 5 hours and 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠179.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠179.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠204.3°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 22:50 about 12 days since last perigee on 17 October 2024 at 00:46 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 14 November 2024 at 11:18 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 406 164 km

This apogee Moon is 406 164 km (252 379 mi) away from Earth. It is 756 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 545 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♎ Libra at 17:44 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 12 November 2024 at 15:59 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 22 October 2024 at 00:50 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.653° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.578° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 November 2024 at 17:18 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 1 November 2024 at 12:47 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