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 7% 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 ∠6° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 22 December 2073 at 00:06.

Wolf Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2074 after 17 days on 13 January 2074 at 06:31.

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 ∠1957"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1957" and ∠1951".

Lunation 914 / 1867

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 914 of Meeus index or 1867 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 43 minutes and it is 1 hour and 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 1 minute shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 8 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠22.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠22.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠43.1°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 25 December 2073 at 23:45 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 January 2074 at 17:28 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 366 211 km

The Moon is 366 211 km (227 553 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 632 km (251 427 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 18 December 2073 at 11:14 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 31 December 2073 at 05:26 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 15 December 2073 at 22:12 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.261° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.262° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 December 2073 at 21:38 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 28 December 2073 at 16:55 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