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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 2% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 28 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 in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠14° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 18 December 2011 at 00:48.

Wolf Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2012 after 16 days on 9 January 2012 at 07:30.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1944"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1944" and ∠1951".

Lunation 147 / 1100

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 147 of Meeus index or 1100 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.5 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 57 minutes and it is 1 hour and 36 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 47 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 22 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠21.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠21.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠42.1°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 22 December 2011 at 02:56 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 2 January 2012 at 20:19 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 368 715 km

The Moon is 368 715 km (229 109 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 580 km (251 394 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 11:36 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 6 January 2012 at 14:30 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon at southern standstill

At 17:25 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-22.554°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠22.539° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 6 January 2012 at 21:46.

New draconic month

At 11:36 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 24 December 2011 at 18:06 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