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

Waning Crescent in Scorpio

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 37% 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 18 January 2009 at 02:46.

Snow Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2009 after 21 days on 9 February 2009 at 14:49.

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 ∠1799"

Lunar disc appears visually 8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1799" and ∠1950".

Lunation 111 / 1064

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 111 of Meeus index or 1064 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.81 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 33 minutes and it is 1 hour and 53 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2009. 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 6 hours and 49 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 14 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠186.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠186.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠213.2°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 10 January 2009 at 10:52 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 23 January 2009 at 00:11 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 398 373 km

The Moon is 398 373 km (247 538 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 116 km (252 349 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 12 January 2009 at 08:34 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 January 2009 at 13:27 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 9 January 2009 at 05:38 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.060° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.081° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 January 2009 at 14:02 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

20 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 26 January 2009 at 07:55 in ♒ Aquarius 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