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

Waning Crescent in Libra

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 30% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 24 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 7 December 2077 at 07:25.

Cold Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2077 after 19 days on 29 December 2077 at 10:45.

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 9.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1949".

Lunation 963 / 1916

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 963 of Meeus index or 1916 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 6 minutes and it is 1 hour and 58 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 4 hours and 22 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 41 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠222.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠222.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠258.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 10:56 about 11 days since last perigee on 27 November 2077 at 16:38 in ♈ Aries 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 25 December 2077 at 02:40 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 404 827 km

This apogee Moon is 404 827 km (251 548 mi) away from Earth. It is 581 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 1 882 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 29 November 2077 at 05:49 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 December 2077 at 09:35 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 2 December 2077 at 01:46 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.488° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.467° at the point of next southern standstill on 16 December 2077 at 13:36 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 15 December 2077 at 10:06 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