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 37% 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 ∠19° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 25 November 2051 at 04:02.

Cold Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2051 after 21 days on 17 December 2051 at 16:05.

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 ∠1798"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1798" and ∠1944".

Lunation 641 / 1594

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 641 of Meeus index or 1594 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.78 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 38 minutes and it is 1 hour and 9 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2051. 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 5 hours and 54 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 9 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠187.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠187.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠214.3°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 17 November 2051 at 10:55 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 29 November 2051 at 23:42 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 398 553 km

The Moon is 398 553 km (247 649 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 942 km (252 241 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 16 November 2051 at 01:34 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 29 November 2051 at 08:08 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 20 November 2051 at 02:16 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.736° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.781° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 December 2051 at 11:27 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 3 December 2051 at 09:37 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