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

Waning Crescent in Capricorn

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 21% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 25 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 23 February 2003 at 16:46.

Worm Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2003 after 19 days on 18 March 2003 at 10:34.

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 ∠1903"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1903" and ∠1938".

Lunation 38 / 991

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 38 of Meeus index or 991 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 47 minutes and it is 57 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 3 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠90.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠90.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠127.8°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 19 February 2003 at 16:19 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 7 March 2003 at 16:34 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 376 592 km

The Moon is 376 592 km (234 003 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 383 km (251 893 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 23 February 2003 at 15:47 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 9 March 2003 at 19:23 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon at southern standstill

At 05:53 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-26.015°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠26.158° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 12 March 2003 at 19:44.

Draconic month

15 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 3 March 2003 at 02:35 in ♓ Pisces 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