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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 21% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♋ Cancer later.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 13 August 2009 at 18:55.

Harvest Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2009 after 19 days on 4 September 2009 at 16:03.

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 ∠1963"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1963" and ∠1895".

Lunation 118 / 1071

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 118 of Meeus index or 1071 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.31 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 27 minutes and it is 1 hour and 16 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 17 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 52 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠4.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠4.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠20.3°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 4 August 2009 at 00:42 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 August 2009 at 04:53 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 365 059 km

The Moon is 365 059 km (226 837 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 642 km (223 471 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 4 August 2009 at 21:42 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 18 August 2009 at 14:06 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 15 August 2009 at 21:54 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.442° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.391° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 August 2009 at 20:17 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 20 August 2009 at 10:01 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