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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 3% 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 16 February 2039 at 02:36.

Worm Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2039 after 17 days on 10 March 2039 at 16:35.

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 ∠1894"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1894" and ∠1940".

Lunation 483 / 1436

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 483 of Meeus index or 1436 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.57 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 41 minutes and it is 1 hour and 1 minute 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 57 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 6 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠51.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠51.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠83.5°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 15 February 2039 at 17:30 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 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 1 March 2039 at 22:42 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 378 400 km

The Moon is 378 400 km (235 127 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 389 km (251 276 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 18 February 2039 at 09:34 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 4 March 2039 at 09:49 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 19 February 2039 at 06:19 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.002° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠24.115° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 March 2039 at 12:11 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 23 February 2039 at 03:18 in ♓ Pisces 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