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

Waning Crescent in Libra

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 20% 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 18 November 2011 at 15:09.

Cold Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2011 after 19 days on 10 December 2011 at 14:36.

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 1.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1967" and ∠1942".

Lunation 146 / 1099

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 146 of Meeus index or 1099 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes and it is 1 hour 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 30 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 39 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠5.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠5.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠21.6°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 8 November 2011 at 13:20 in ♈ Aries 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 23 November 2011 at 23:24 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 364 400 km

The Moon is 364 400 km (226 428 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 692 km (223 502 mi).

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 13 November 2011 at 00:35 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 November 2011 at 01:02 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 13 November 2011 at 07:23 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠22.558° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-22.552° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 November 2011 at 06:47 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

22 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 3 days

In 3 days on 25 November 2011 at 06:10 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