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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 39% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 31 August 2048 at 07:42.

Harvest Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2048 after 20 days on 22 September 2048 at 04:46.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1902".

Lunation 601 / 1554

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 601 of Meeus index or 1554 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 26 minutes and it is 1 hour and 5 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 18 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 51 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠240.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠240.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠276°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 10:48 about 11 days since last perigee on 20 August 2048 at 12:34 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next perigee on 15 September 2048 at 15:06 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 404 235 km

This apogee Moon is 404 235 km (251 180 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 173 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 474 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♊ Gemini at 16:14 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 15 September 2048 at 06:06 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon at northern standstill

At 03:54 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠23.449°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-23.317° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 14 September 2048 at 22:20.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 8 September 2048 at 06:24 in ♍ Virgo 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