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

Waning Crescent in Libra

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 10% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 26 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 30 October 2010 at 12:46.

Beaver Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2010 after 18 days on 21 November 2010 at 17:27.

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 ∠1967"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.6% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1967" and ∠1935".

Lunation 133 / 1086

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 133 of Meeus index or 1086 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.42 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 7 minutes and it is 2 hours and 37 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 2 hours and 37 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 32 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠20.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠20.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠39.7°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 17:22 about 15 days since last apogee on 18 October 2010 at 18:18 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 11 days until point of next apogee on 15 November 2010 at 11:47 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 364 189 km

This perigee Moon is 364 189 km (226 297 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 681 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 6 167 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

6 days after descending node on 28 October 2010 at 03:15 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 9 November 2010 at 20:14 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 26 October 2010 at 22:36 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.337° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.281° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 November 2010 at 16:59 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 6 November 2010 at 04:52 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