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 15% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ∠14° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 18 December 2030 at 00:01.

Wolf Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2031 after 18 days on 8 January 2031 at 18:26.

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 ∠1951"

Lunar disc appears visually 0% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1951" and ∠1951".

Lunation 382 / 1335

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 382 of Meeus index or 1335 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 46 minutes and it is 13 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 58 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 11 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠349.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠349.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠5.3°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 10 December 2030 at 10:03 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 24 December 2030 at 10:09 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 367 395 km

The Moon is 367 395 km (228 289 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 926 km (221 784 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 9 December 2030 at 01:17 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 23 December 2030 at 00:54 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 9 December 2030 at 22:37 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.909° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.904° at the point of next southern standstill on 23 December 2030 at 18:07 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 24 December 2030 at 17:32 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