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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 2% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 28 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 31 January 2081 at 20:37.

Snow Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2081 after 16 days on 23 February 2081 at 14:27.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1773"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1773" and ∠1945".

Lunation 1002 / 1955

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1002 of Meeus index or 1955 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 15 minutes and it is 15 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2081. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠151.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠151.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠177.5°.

Moon before apogee

12 days since point of perigee on 25 January 2081 at 17:17 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 9 February 2081 at 03:24 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 281 km

The Moon is 404 281 km (251 209 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 582 km (252 638 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 28 January 2081 at 10:41 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 11 February 2081 at 16:49 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 4 February 2081 at 13:10 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.557° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.630° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 February 2081 at 03:19 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 8 February 2081 at 20:17 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