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

Waning Crescent in Libra

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 4% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 13 October 2025 at 18:13.

Beaver Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2025 after 17 days on 5 November 2025 at 13:19.

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 ∠1802"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1802" and ∠1927".

Lunation 318 / 1271

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 318 of Meeus index or 1271 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.69 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 31 minutes and it is 1 hour and 51 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 3 hours and 47 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 16 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠127.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠127.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠156.8°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 8 October 2025 at 12:36 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 23 October 2025 at 23:31 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 397 843 km

The Moon is 397 843 km (247 208 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 445 km (252 553 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 18 October 2025 at 04:34 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 1 November 2025 at 17:46 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 12 October 2025 at 03:30 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.550° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.457° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 October 2025 at 12:50 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 21 October 2025 at 12:25 in ♎ Libra 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