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 13% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ∠21° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 22 October 2046 at 20:07.

Beaver Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2046 after 18 days on 13 November 2046 at 17:04.

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 ∠1969"

Lunar disc appears visually 2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1969" and ∠1931".

Lunation 578 / 1531

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 578 of Meeus index or 1531 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 52 minutes and it is 1 hour and 41 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 3 hours and 53 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 17 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠1.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠1.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠16.7°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 13 October 2046 at 11:22 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 October 2046 at 11:41 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 364 017 km

The Moon is 364 017 km (226 190 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 601 km (222 824 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 22 October 2046 at 20:31 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 4 November 2046 at 08:16 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 19 October 2046 at 20:53 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.246° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.165° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 November 2046 at 13:02 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

18 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 2 days

In 2 days on 29 October 2046 at 11:17 in ♏ Scorpio 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