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

Waning Crescent in Leo

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 15% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 25 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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 8 September 2012 at 13:15.

Harvest Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2012 after 17 days on 30 September 2012 at 03:19.

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 ∠1828"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1828" and ∠1907".

Lunation 156 / 1109

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 156 of Meeus index or 1109 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 16 minutes and it is 24 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠283.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠283.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠312.9°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 7 September 2012 at 06:00 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 September 2012 at 02:52 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 392 139 km

The Moon is 392 139 km (243 664 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 749 km (227 266 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 7 September 2012 at 02:08 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 September 2012 at 12:54 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

3 days since the last northern standstill on 8 September 2012 at 18:10 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.244° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.135° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 September 2012 at 00:11 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

19 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 16 September 2012 at 02:11 in ♍ Virgo 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