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

Waning Crescent in Scorpio

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 13% 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 in ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 21 December 2016 at 01:56.

Wolf Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2017 after 17 days on 12 January 2017 at 11:34.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1951".

Lunation 209 / 1162

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 209 of Meeus index or 1162 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.77 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 35 minutes and it is 1 hour and 21 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 51 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 12 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠194.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠194.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠223.4°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 05:55 about 12 days since last perigee on 12 December 2016 at 23:27 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 10 January 2017 at 06:07 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 405 870 km

This apogee Moon is 405 870 km (252 196 mi) away from Earth. It is 462 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 839 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

6 days after ascending node on 19 December 2016 at 04:46 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 2 January 2017 at 18:14 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 14 December 2016 at 21:43 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.937° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.958° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 December 2016 at 03:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 29 December 2016 at 06:53 in ♑ Capricorn 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