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

Waning Crescent in Aquarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 6% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 27 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 14 February 2031 at 22:50.

Worm Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2031 after 17 days on 9 March 2031 at 04:30.

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 ∠1958"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1958" and ∠1941".

Lunation 384 / 1337

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 384 of Meeus index or 1337 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.47 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 18 minutes and it is 42 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 26 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 43 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠21.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠21.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠41.9°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 00:35 about 16 days since last apogee on 2 February 2031 at 23:45 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 11 days until point of next apogee on 2 March 2031 at 18:57 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 364 745 km

This perigee Moon is 364 745 km (226 642 mi) away from Earth. It is 2 237 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 5 611 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 15 February 2031 at 11:21 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 28 February 2031 at 11:02 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 16 February 2031 at 13:25 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-21.615° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠21.491° at the point of next northern standstill on 1 March 2031 at 20:54 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 21 February 2031 at 15:49 in ♒ Aquarius 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