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 25% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 ∠9° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 29 October 2048 at 22:15.

Beaver Moon after 18 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2048 after 18 days on 20 November 2048 at 11:20.

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 ∠1834"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1834" and ∠1934".

Lunation 603 / 1556

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 603 of Meeus index or 1556 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 53 minutes and it is 1 minute 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 1 hour and 51 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 18 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠307.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠307.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠330.6°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 27 October 2048 at 01:59 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 7 November 2048 at 23:21 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 390 737 km

The Moon is 390 737 km (242 793 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 590 km (224 682 mi).

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 25 October 2048 at 21:25 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 8 November 2048 at 12:22 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 25 October 2048 at 19:04 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠22.990° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-22.947° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 November 2048 at 11:15 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

20 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 6 November 2048 at 04:38 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