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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠9° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 20 December 2046 at 14:43.

Wolf Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2047 after 17 days on 12 January 2047 at 01:21.

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 ∠1931"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1931" and ∠1951".

Lunation 580 / 1533

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 580 of Meeus index or 1533 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 49 minutes and it is 2 hours and 16 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 58 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠35.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠35.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠60.8°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 23 December 2046 at 05:06 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 4 January 2047 at 09:26 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 371 220 km

The Moon is 371 220 km (230 665 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 416 km (251 292 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 16 December 2046 at 00:01 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 December 2046 at 21:09 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 13 December 2046 at 08:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.034° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-26.050° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 December 2046 at 08:09 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 27 December 2046 at 10:39 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