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

Waning Crescent in Libra

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 12% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 5 November 2004 at 05:53.

Beaver Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2004 after 17 days on 26 November 2004 at 20:07.

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 ∠1865"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1865" and ∠1938".

Lunation 59 / 1012

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 59 of Meeus index or 1012 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 39 minutes and it is 37 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 5 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 4 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠302.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠302.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠327.5°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 2 November 2004 at 18:09 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 14 November 2004 at 13:54 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 384 403 km

The Moon is 384 403 km (238 857 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 313 km (225 131 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 27 October 2004 at 21:41 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 11 November 2004 at 07:43 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 2 November 2004 at 01:32 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.042° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.013° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 November 2004 at 14:59 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 12 November 2004 at 14:27 in ♏ Scorpio 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