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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 35% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 23 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 16 August 2006 at 01:51.

Harvest Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2006 after 21 days on 7 September 2006 at 18:42.

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 ∠1889"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1889" and ∠1895".

Lunation 81 / 1034

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 81 of Meeus index or 1034 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.61 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 39 minutes and it is 1 hour and 56 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 1 hour and 55 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 8 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠131.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠131.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠158.8°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 10 August 2006 at 18:27 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 26 August 2006 at 01:23 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 379 496 km

The Moon is 379 496 km (235 808 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 271 km (252 445 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 12 August 2006 at 01:31 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 25 August 2006 at 21:34 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 6 August 2006 at 04:11 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.594° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠28.645° at the point of next northern standstill on 18 August 2006 at 19:43 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 23 August 2006 at 19:10 in ♌ Leo 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