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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 12% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 26 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 is entering ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 24 January 2079 at 21:46.

Snow Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2079 after 17 days on 15 February 2079 at 23:45.

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 ∠1780"

Lunar disc appears visually 9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1780" and ∠1948".

Lunation 977 / 1930

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 977 of Meeus index or 1930 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 45 minutes and it is 2 hours and 32 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 1 minute longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 2 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠225.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠225.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠261.8°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 26 January 2079 at 21:03 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 11 February 2079 at 08:13 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 402 617 km

The Moon is 402 617 km (250 175 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 12 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 141 km (229 374 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 24 January 2079 at 23:31 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 February 2079 at 23:17 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 16 January 2079 at 00:05 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.561° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-27.617° at the point of next southern standstill on 30 January 2079 at 00:20 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 1 February 2079 at 23:35 in ♒ Aquarius 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