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 38% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 ∠17° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 23 December 2043 at 05:04.

Wolf Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2044 after 21 days on 14 January 2044 at 18:51.

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 ∠1812"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1812" and ∠1951".

Lunation 543 / 1496

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 543 of Meeus index or 1496 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 11 minutes and it is 55 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2043. 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 6 hours and 27 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 36 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠179.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠179.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠204.4°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 15 December 2043 at 22:01 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 28 December 2043 at 19:33 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 395 626 km

The Moon is 395 626 km (245 831 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 403 km (252 527 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 22 December 2043 at 16:01 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 6 January 2044 at 06:50 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 16 December 2043 at 16:08 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.409° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.400° at the point of next southern standstill on 30 December 2043 at 12:51 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 31 December 2043 at 09:48 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