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

Waning Crescent in Virgo

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 38% 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 18 November 2030 at 08:32.

Cold Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2030 after 20 days on 9 December 2030 at 22:40.

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 ∠1855"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1855" and ∠1942".

Lunation 381 / 1334

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 381 of Meeus index or 1334 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes and it is 16 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 15 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 55 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠332.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠332.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠349.8°.

Moon after apogee

6 days since point of apogee on 13 November 2030 at 05:00 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 25 November 2030 at 21:07 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 386 467 km

The Moon is 386 467 km (240 139 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 521 km (222 153 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 11 November 2030 at 18:45 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 25 November 2030 at 13:32 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 12 November 2030 at 16:17 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.904° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.903° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 November 2030 at 06:20 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 25 November 2030 at 06:46 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