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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 24% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 24 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 7 February 2048 at 03:16.

Snow Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2048 after 20 days on 29 February 2048 at 14:38.

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 ∠1966"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1966" and ∠1945".

Lunation 594 / 1547

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 594 of Meeus index or 1547 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 59 minutes and it is 57 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 15 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 48 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠37.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠37.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠64.6°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 09:12 about 15 days since last apogee on 24 January 2048 at 21:24 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next apogee on 21 February 2048 at 18:29 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 369 129 km

This perigee Moon is 369 129 km (229 366 mi) away from Earth. It is 6 621 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 1 227 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 28 January 2048 at 06:52 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 10 February 2048 at 12:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon at southern standstill

At 07:42 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-24.460°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠24.357° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 23 February 2048 at 04:06.

Draconic month

26 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 4 days

In 4 days on 14 February 2048 at 00:31 in ♓ Pisces 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