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 42% 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠17° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 28 November 2048 at 16:34.

Cold Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2048 after 20 days on 20 December 2048 at 06:39.

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 ∠1842"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1842" and ∠1946".

Lunation 604 / 1557

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 604 of Meeus index or 1557 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 52 minutes and it is 2 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2048. 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 52 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 17 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠330.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠330.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠348.2°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 23 November 2048 at 18:24 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 6 December 2048 at 07:58 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 389 053 km

The Moon is 389 053 km (241 746 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 717 km (222 275 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 22 November 2048 at 02:54 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 5 December 2048 at 22:27 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 22 November 2048 at 01:41 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠22.917° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-22.922° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 December 2048 at 21:34 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 6 days

In 6 days on 5 December 2048 at 15:30 in ♐ Sagittarius 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