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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 14% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 1 March 2054 at 07:36.

Worm Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2054 after 18 days on 23 March 2054 at 17:21.

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 9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1934".

Lunation 669 / 1622

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 669 of Meeus index or 1622 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.77 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 32 minutes and it is 2 hours and 45 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 48 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 15 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠193.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠193.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠220.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 16:18 about 12 days since last perigee on 21 February 2054 at 07:51 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 16 days until point of next perigee on 21 March 2054 at 14:11 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 405 875 km

This apogee Moon is 405 875 km (252 199 mi) away from Earth. It is 467 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 834 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 22 February 2054 at 12:29 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 March 2054 at 13:36 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 3 March 2054 at 09:21 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.648° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.685° at the point of next northern standstill on 17 March 2054 at 17:30 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

10 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 9 March 2054 at 12:46 in ♓ Pisces 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