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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 20 December 2065 at 17:12.

Wolf Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2066 after 17 days on 11 January 2066 at 15:07.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1951".

Lunation 815 / 1768

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 815 of Meeus index or 1768 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 48 minutes and it is 59 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 1 hour and 57 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 13 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠0.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠0.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠16.6°.

Moon before perigee

14 days since point of apogee on 11 December 2065 at 06:28 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 7 January 2066 at 15:46 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 363 298 km

The Moon is 363 298 km (225 743 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 716 km (252 100 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 15 December 2065 at 01:34 in ♋ Cancer 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 28 December 2065 at 03:31 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 12 December 2065 at 16:57 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.464° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-25.485° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 December 2065 at 06:50 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 27 December 2065 at 08:27 in ♑ Capricorn 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