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 25% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 passing about ∠20° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 9 December 2028 at 05:39.

Cold Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2028 after 20 days on 31 December 2028 at 16:48.

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 ∠1967"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1967" and ∠1949".

Lunation 357 / 1310

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 357 of Meeus index or 1310 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes and it is 2 hours and 30 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠37.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠37.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠63.8°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 12:44 about 15 days since last apogee on 26 November 2028 at 00:10 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 23 December 2028 at 21:00 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 369 056 km

This perigee Moon is 369 056 km (229 321 mi) away from Earth. It is 6 548 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 1 300 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

6 days after descending node on 4 December 2028 at 15:14 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 17 December 2028 at 12:41 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 2 December 2028 at 18:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.180° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.184° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 December 2028 at 16:37 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 16 December 2028 at 02:06 in ♐ Sagittarius 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