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

Waning Crescent in Libra

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 18 October 2049 at 17:55.

Beaver Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2049 after 15 days on 9 November 2049 at 15:38.

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 ∠1832"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1832" and ∠1930".

Lunation 615 / 1568

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 615 of Meeus index or 1568 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.59 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 10 minutes and it is 49 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 26 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 37 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠241.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠241.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠278.3°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 19 October 2049 at 18:32 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 2 November 2049 at 18:03 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 391 206 km

The Moon is 391 206 km (243 084 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 370 118 km (229 981 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 14 October 2049 at 06:20 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 October 2049 at 15:39 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 15 October 2049 at 15:55 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.344° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.292° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 October 2049 at 23:11 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

24 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 1 day

In 1 day on 26 October 2049 at 16:15 in ♎ Libra 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