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

Waning Crescent in Scorpio

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 40% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 25 January 2022 at 13:41.

Snow Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2022 after 21 days on 16 February 2022 at 16:57.

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 ∠1957"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1957" and ∠1949".

Lunation 272 / 1225

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 272 of Meeus index or 1225 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.47 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 13 minutes and it is 36 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 32 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 38 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠13.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠13.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠32°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 14 January 2022 at 09:27 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 January 2022 at 07:09 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 366 295 km

The Moon is 366 295 km (227 605 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 250 km (225 092 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 13 January 2022 at 04:19 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 27 January 2022 at 06:14 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 16 January 2022 at 10:16 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.310° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.369° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 January 2022 at 23:26 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 1 February 2022 at 05:46 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