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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 3% 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 9 December 2028 at 05:39.

Cold Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2028 after 17 days on 31 December 2028 at 16:48.

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 ∠1919"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1919" and ∠1950".

Lunation 357 / 1310

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 357 of Meeus index or 1310 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes and it is 2 hours and 30 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 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠37.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠37.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠63.8°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 11 December 2028 at 12:44 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 23 December 2028 at 21:00 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 373 440 km

The Moon is 373 440 km (232 045 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 409 km (251 288 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 4 December 2028 at 15:14 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 17 December 2028 at 12:41 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 2 December 2028 at 18:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.180° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-25.184° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 December 2028 at 16:37 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 16 December 2028 at 02:06 in ♐ Sagittarius 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