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 24% 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 leaving the last ∠4° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 13 December 2033 at 15:28.

Wolf Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2034 after 19 days on 4 January 2034 at 19:47.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1950".

Lunation 419 / 1372

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 419 of Meeus index or 1372 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 7 minutes and it is 1 hour and 52 minutes longer 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 23 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 40 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠217.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠217.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠252°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 03:29 about 11 days since last perigee on 4 December 2033 at 08:06 in ♉ Taurus 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 1 January 2034 at 00:06 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 404 906 km

This apogee Moon is 404 906 km (251 597 mi) away from Earth. It is 502 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 803 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 15 December 2033 at 02:35 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 29 December 2033 at 00:23 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 7 December 2033 at 04:42 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.469° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.491° at the point of next southern standstill on 21 December 2033 at 14:13 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 21 December 2033 at 18:47 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