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 15% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ∠5° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 5 January 2097 at 09:20.

Wolf Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2097 after 18 days on 27 January 2097 at 19:47.

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 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1951".

Lunation 1199 / 2152

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1199 of Meeus index or 2152 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.79 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 54 minutes and it is 2 hours and 5 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 6 hours and 10 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 53 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠194.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠194.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠222.5°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 15:16 about 12 days since last perigee on 28 December 2096 at 08:21 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 16 days until point of next perigee on 25 January 2097 at 15:17 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 405 774 km

This apogee Moon is 405 774 km (252 136 mi) away from Earth. It is 366 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 935 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 8 January 2097 at 05:58 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 22 January 2097 at 08:09 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 29 December 2096 at 07:30 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.927° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.927° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 January 2097 at 06:42 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

14 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 4 days

In 4 days on 13 January 2097 at 15:00 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