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 22% 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.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 15 August 2055 at 14:26.

Harvest Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2055 after 18 days on 6 September 2055 at 01:56.

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 ∠1859"

Lunar disc appears visually 2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1859" and ∠1896".

Lunation 687 / 1640

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 687 of Meeus index or 1640 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 27 minutes and it is 22 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 17 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 52 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠315.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠315.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠336.4°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 12 August 2055 at 01:01 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 24 August 2055 at 04:11 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 385 675 km

The Moon is 385 675 km (239 647 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 218 km (223 829 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 7 August 2055 at 01:42 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 21 August 2055 at 10:18 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 4 August 2055 at 18:05 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.399° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠20.416° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 August 2055 at 08:07 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 22 August 2055 at 18:14 in ♌ Leo 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