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

Waning Crescent in Virgo

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 32% 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 is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 28 November 2010 at 20:36.

Cold Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2010 after 20 days on 21 December 2010 at 08:13.

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 ∠1970"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1970" and ∠1946".

Lunation 134 / 1087

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 134 of Meeus index or 1087 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes and it is 2 hours and 43 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 same as the mean

The length of the current synodic month is equal to the mean synodic month length. It is %hours_to_shortest% and %minutes_to_shortest% longer than the 21st century's shortest and %hours_to_longest% and %minutes_to_longest% shorter than the 21st century's longest synodic months.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠39.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠39.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠67°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 19:09 about 15 days since last apogee on 15 November 2010 at 11:47 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 13 December 2010 at 08:34 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 369 439 km

This perigee Moon is 369 439 km (229 559 mi) away from Earth. It is 6 931 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 917 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 24 November 2010 at 06:27 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 7 December 2010 at 04:15 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 23 November 2010 at 04:24 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.238° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.233° at the point of next southern standstill on 6 December 2010 at 02:10 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 5 days

In 5 days on 5 December 2010 at 17:36 in ♐ Sagittarius 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