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

Waning Crescent in Capricorn

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 1% 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 6 January 2002 at 03:55.

Wolf Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2002 after 16 days on 28 January 2002 at 22:50.

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 ∠1828"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1828" and ∠1951".

Lunation 24 / 977

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 24 of Meeus index or 977 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 41 minutes and it is 1 hour and 31 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 3 hours and 57 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 6 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠86.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠86.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠123.9°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 2 January 2002 at 07:13 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 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 18 January 2002 at 08:50 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 392 100 km

The Moon is 392 100 km (243 640 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 503 km (251 968 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 11 January 2002 at 11:56 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 January 2002 at 00:27 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon at southern standstill

At 15:26 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-24.240°. This is the year's southernmost lunar standstill of 2002. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠24.270° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 27 January 2002 at 01:56.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 13 January 2002 at 13:29 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