Waning Crescent on

Moon phase on 31 December 2021 Friday is Waning Crescent, 26 days old Moon is in Sagittarius.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2021 | December 2021

Waning Crescent phase
Waning Crescent phase
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

Waning Crescent 8% illuminated

Waning Crescent is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 8% and getting smaller. The 26 days old Moon is in ♐ Sagittarius.

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Moon phases for next 7 days

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Moon phase and lunation details

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 27 December 2021 at 02:24.

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.

Moon in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1972"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1972" and ∠1951".

Wolf Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2022 after 17 days on 17 January 2022 at 23:49.

Upcoming main Moon phases

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.

Lunation 271 / 1224

The Moon is 26 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the second to the final part of current synodic month. This is lunation 271 of Meeus index or 1224 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 50 minutes. It is 23 minutes shorter than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increasing with the true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 54 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 15 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠358.3°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠358.3°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠13.9°.

Moon before apogee

13 days after point of apogee on 18 December 2021 at 02:16 in ♊ Gemini. The lunar orbit is getting narrow, while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day, until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 January 2022 at 23:00 in ♐ Sagittarius.

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Distance to Moon 363 571 km

The Moon is 363 571 km (225 913 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 037 km (222 474 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 01:07 crossing the ecliptic from North to South to meet ascending node 12 days later on 13 January 2022 at 04:19 in ♊ Gemini.

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Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the cycle.

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Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the previous standstill on 20 December 2021 at 04:32 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.306°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.304° at the point of next southern standstill on 2 January 2022 at 13:35 in ♑ Capricorn.

Previous standstillNext standstill

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 2 January 2022 at 18:33 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.

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