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

Waning Crescent in Capricorn

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 19 January 2017 at 22:14.

Snow Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2017 after 15 days on 11 February 2017 at 00:33.

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 ∠1806"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1806" and ∠1949".

Lunation 210 / 1163

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 210 of Meeus index or 1163 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.72 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 14 minutes and it is 2 hours and 23 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 4 hours and 30 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 33 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠223.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠223.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠259.5°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 22 January 2017 at 00:14 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 February 2017 at 13:59 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 396 956 km

The Moon is 396 956 km (246 657 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 817 km (229 172 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 15 January 2017 at 10:45 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 29 January 2017 at 22:21 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 25 January 2017 at 11:59 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.900° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.865° at the point of next northern standstill on 7 February 2017 at 18:34 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

11 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 28 January 2017 at 00:07 in ♒ Aquarius 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