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

Waning Crescent in Virgo

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 10% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 26 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 7 October 2050 at 16:32.

Hunter Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2050 after 17 days on 30 October 2050 at 03:16.

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 8.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1923".

Lunation 627 / 1580

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 627 of Meeus index or 1580 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 59 minutes and it is 6 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2050. 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 15 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 48 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠186.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠186.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠212°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 15:51 about 12 days since last perigee on 30 September 2050 at 00:42 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 28 October 2050 at 09:08 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 406 050 km

This apogee Moon is 406 050 km (252 308 mi) away from Earth. It is 642 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 659 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 3 October 2050 at 00:50 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 17 October 2050 at 10:24 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 5 October 2050 at 19:06 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.840° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.790° at the point of next southern standstill on 20 October 2050 at 12:04 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 15 October 2050 at 20:48 in ♎ Libra 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