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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 36% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠25° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 31 August 2002 at 02:31.

Harvest Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2002 after 20 days on 21 September 2002 at 13:59.

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 ∠1842"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1842" and ∠1901".

Lunation 32 / 985

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 32 of Meeus index or 985 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 55 minutes and it is 12 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2002. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 20 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠324.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠324.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠343.1°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 26 August 2002 at 17:43 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 8 September 2002 at 03:14 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 389 192 km

The Moon is 389 192 km (241 833 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 745 km (222 914 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 31 August 2002 at 14:43 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 September 2002 at 03:39 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 19 August 2002 at 00:37 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.159° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠25.282° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 September 2002 at 16:03 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 7 September 2002 at 03:10 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