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

Waning Crescent in Scorpio

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 19% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 25 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 is entering ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 13 December 2052 at 01:07.

Wolf Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2053 after 19 days on 4 January 2053 at 17:46.

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 ∠1795"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1795" and ∠1950".

Lunation 654 / 1607

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 654 of Meeus index or 1607 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 13 minutes and it is 16 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2052. 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 29 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 34 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠165.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠165.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠190.2°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 6 December 2052 at 08:52 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 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 20 December 2052 at 00:02 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 399 287 km

The Moon is 399 287 km (248 105 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 649 km (252 680 mi).

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 13 December 2052 at 19:44 in ♍ Virgo 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 28 December 2052 at 11:06 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 7 December 2052 at 06:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.396° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.432° at the point of next southern standstill on 21 December 2052 at 04:09 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

2 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 21 December 2052 at 04:15 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