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 42% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 11 September 2066 at 14:16.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2066 after 21 days on 3 October 2066 at 12:25.

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 7.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1907".

Lunation 824 / 1777

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 824 of Meeus index or 1777 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 58 minutes and it is 1 hour and 3 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 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠236.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠236.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠272.1°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 22:49 about 11 days since last perigee on 1 September 2066 at 01:49 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 27 September 2066 at 12:48 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 404 308 km

This apogee Moon is 404 308 km (251 225 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 100 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 401 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 30 August 2066 at 14:05 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 September 2066 at 00:19 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 11 September 2066 at 14:21 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.408° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.274° at the point of next southern standstill on 25 September 2066 at 13:22 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 19 September 2066 at 13:47 in ♍ Virgo 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