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

Waning Crescent in Libra

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 25% 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 14 December 2060 at 17:15.

Wolf Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2061 after 19 days on 6 January 2061 at 02:24.

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 ∠1772"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1772" and ∠1950".

Lunation 753 / 1706

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 753 of Meeus index or 1706 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.77 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 24 minutes and it is 1 hour and 47 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 40 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 23 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠199.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠199.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠228.7°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 6 December 2060 at 09:57 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 18 December 2060 at 13:24 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 404 533 km

The Moon is 404 533 km (251 365 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 552 km (251 998 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♎ Libra at 13:43 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 31 December 2060 at 13:55 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 8 December 2060 at 20:39 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.011° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.980° at the point of next southern standstill on 23 December 2060 at 03:55 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 22 December 2060 at 22:39 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