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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 31% 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 is entering ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 28 August 2051 at 17:29.

Harvest Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2051 after 20 days on 20 September 2051 at 10:11.

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 ∠1914"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1914" and ∠1901".

Lunation 638 / 1591

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 638 of Meeus index or 1591 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.56 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 28 minutes and it is 2 hours and 46 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 44 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 19 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠104.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠104.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠137°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 24 August 2051 at 08:43 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 9 September 2051 at 04:18 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 374 460 km

The Moon is 374 460 km (232 679 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 670 km (252 072 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 25 August 2051 at 20:56 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 8 September 2051 at 15:18 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 01:37 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.858°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.758° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 13 September 2051 at 15:30.

Draconic month

18 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 5 September 2051 at 04:33 in ♍ Virgo 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