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 29% 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 in ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 17 August 2052 at 14:43.

Harvest Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2052 after 20 days on 9 September 2052 at 00:15.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1896".

Lunation 650 / 1603

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 650 of Meeus index or 1603 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 36 minutes and it is 2 hours and 50 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 8 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 1 minute longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠43°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠43° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠69.9°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 04:12 about 14 days since last apogee on 4 August 2052 at 05:18 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 1 September 2052 at 00:01 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 369 240 km

This perigee Moon is 369 240 km (229 435 mi) away from Earth. It is 6 732 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 1 116 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 14 August 2052 at 01:39 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 27 August 2052 at 00:15 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 22:30 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.268°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.203° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 2 September 2052 at 21:23.

Draconic month

19 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 4 days

In 4 days on 24 August 2052 at 11:07 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