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

Waning Crescent in Libra

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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 19 December 2038 at 09:29.

Wolf Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2039 after 20 days on 10 January 2039 at 11:45.

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 ∠1954"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1954" and ∠1950".

Lunation 481 / 1434

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 481 of Meeus index or 1434 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.47 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 15 minutes and it is 1 hour and 19 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 29 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 40 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠10.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠10.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠28.2°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 8 December 2038 at 13:35 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 24 December 2038 at 08:23 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 366 828 km

The Moon is 366 828 km (227 936 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 283 km (224 491 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 12 December 2038 at 16:05 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 25 December 2038 at 19:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 13 December 2038 at 13:26 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.887° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-23.882° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 December 2038 at 13:42 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 26 December 2038 at 01:02 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