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

Waning Crescent in Virgo

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 15% 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 5 October 2072 at 02:28.

Hunter Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2072 after 18 days on 27 October 2072 at 01:21.

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 ∠1971"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1971" and ∠1921".

Lunation 899 / 1852

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 899 of Meeus index or 1852 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 48 minutes and it is 1 hour and 38 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 3 hours and 56 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 13 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠5.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠5.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠21.6°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 25 September 2072 at 03:10 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 October 2072 at 10:58 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 363 746 km

The Moon is 363 746 km (226 021 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 826 km (223 586 mi).

Moon before ascending node

13 days after descending node on 25 September 2072 at 05:16 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 9 October 2072 at 01:44 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

3 days since the last northern standstill on 4 October 2072 at 13:44 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.655° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.728° at the point of next southern standstill on 17 October 2072 at 04:56 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

26 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 11 October 2072 at 17:55 in ♎ Libra 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