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 is entering ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 30 December 2026 at 18:59.

Wolf Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2027 after 16 days on 22 January 2027 at 12:17.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1951".

Lunation 333 / 1286

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 333 of Meeus index or 1286 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.81 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 33 minutes and it is 1 minute longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2027. 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 6 hours and 48 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 14 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠159.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠159.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠184.3°.

Moon before apogee

13 days since point of perigee on 24 December 2026 at 08:30 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 7 January 2027 at 08:10 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 405 071 km

The Moon is 405 071 km (251 699 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 610 km (252 656 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 27 December 2026 at 07:55 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 10 January 2027 at 15:58 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 5 January 2027 at 20:46 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.636° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.682° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 January 2027 at 23:16 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 7 January 2027 at 20:24 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.

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