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 1% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ∠23° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 20 December 2046 at 14:43.

Wolf Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2047 after 16 days on 12 January 2047 at 01:21.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1909"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1909" and ∠1951".

Lunation 580 / 1533

The Moon is 28 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

3 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 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 4 January 2047 at 09:26 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 375 408 km

The Moon is 375 408 km (233 268 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 8 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 416 km (251 292 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 16 December 2046 at 00:01 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 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 at southern standstill

At 08:09 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-26.050°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠26.065° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 9 January 2047 at 16:36.

Draconic month

24 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