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 24% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 6 March 2021 at 01:30.

Worm Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2021 after 20 days on 28 March 2021 at 18:48.

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 ∠1916"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1916" and ∠1933".

Lunation 261 / 1214

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 261 of Meeus index or 1214 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes and it is 55 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 31 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 32 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠87°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠87° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠124.3°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 2 March 2021 at 05:19 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 18 March 2021 at 05:04 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 374 180 km

The Moon is 374 180 km (232 505 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 253 km (251 813 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 6 March 2021 at 00:56 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 20 March 2021 at 03:31 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 7 March 2021 at 20:45 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.161° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.307° at the point of next northern standstill on 22 March 2021 at 08:35 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 13 March 2021 at 10:21 in ♓ Pisces 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