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

Waning Crescent in Leo

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 18% 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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 23 September 2046 at 08:16.

Hunter Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2046 after 18 days on 14 October 2046 at 23:41.

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 ∠1936"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1936" and ∠1914".

Lunation 577 / 1530

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 577 of Meeus index or 1530 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 1 minute and it is 52 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 4 hours and 44 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 25 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠345.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠345.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠1.2°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 16 September 2046 at 10:11 in ♈ Aries 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 30 September 2046 at 00:48 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 370 297 km

The Moon is 370 297 km (230 092 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 939 km (221 792 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 25 September 2046 at 17:54 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 8 October 2046 at 06:47 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

3 days since the last northern standstill on 22 September 2046 at 15:17 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.482° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.388° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 October 2046 at 04:08 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 30 September 2046 at 02:25 in ♎ Libra 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