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 3% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 27 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 ∠16° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 21 December 2016 at 01:56.

Wolf Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2017 after 15 days on 12 January 2017 at 11:34.

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 ∠1775"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1775" and ∠1951".

Lunation 209 / 1162

The Moon is 27 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 after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 25 December 2016 at 05:55 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 January 2017 at 06:07 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 403 827 km

The Moon is 403 827 km (250 926 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 13 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 242 km (225 708 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 19 December 2016 at 04:46 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 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

12 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 day 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

8 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 1 day

In 1 day 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