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

Waning Crescent in Scorpio

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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 25 November 2051 at 04:02.

Cold Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2051 after 16 days on 17 December 2051 at 16:05.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1946".

Lunation 641 / 1594

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 641 of Meeus index or 1594 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 38 minutes and it is 1 hour and 9 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2051. 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 5 hours and 54 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 9 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠187.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠187.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠214.3°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 29 November 2051 at 23:42 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 December 2051 at 19:57 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 404 895 km

The Moon is 404 895 km (251 590 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 745 km (224 778 mi).

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 29 November 2051 at 08:08 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 December 2051 at 08:09 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 20 November 2051 at 02:16 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.736° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.781° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 December 2051 at 11:27 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

2 days 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 1 day

In 1 day on 3 December 2051 at 09:37 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