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 2% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 10 September 2085 at 21:07.

Hunter Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2085 after 15 days on 3 October 2085 at 08:53.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1910".

Lunation 1059 / 2012

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1059 of Meeus index or 2012 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 56 minutes and it is 3 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2085. 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 3 hours and 12 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 51 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠180.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠180.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠204.1°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 16 September 2085 at 12:30 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 October 2085 at 22:42 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 405 275 km

The Moon is 405 275 km (251 826 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 069 km (223 737 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 11 September 2085 at 15:17 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 September 2085 at 04:15 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 10 September 2085 at 21:10 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.764° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-23.613° at the point of next southern standstill on 25 September 2085 at 14:25 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

18 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 19 September 2085 at 01:07 in ♍ Virgo 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