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

Waning Crescent in Virgo

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 7% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♎ Libra later.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 14 October 2006 at 00:25.

Beaver Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2006 after 17 days on 5 November 2006 at 12:58.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1927".

Lunation 83 / 1036

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 83 of Meeus index or 1036 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.73 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 29 minutes and it is 25 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2006. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 45 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠182.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠182.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠207.1°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 09:35 about 12 days since last perigee on 6 October 2006 at 14:07 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 3 November 2006 at 23:50 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 406 075 km

This apogee Moon is 406 075 km (252 323 mi) away from Earth. It is 667 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 634 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♍ Virgo at 09:34 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 2 November 2006 at 06:55 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after northern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 12 October 2006 at 08:52 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.678° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.595° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 October 2006 at 02:05 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 22 October 2006 at 05:14 in ♎ Libra 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