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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 11% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 11 January 2053 at 18:09.

Snow Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2053 after 17 days on 3 February 2053 at 04:57.

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 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1950".

Lunation 655 / 1608

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 655 of Meeus index or 1608 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.79 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 57 minutes and it is 1 hour and 38 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 6 hours and 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 50 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠190.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠190.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠217.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 07:55 about 12 days since last perigee on 3 January 2053 at 21:39 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 1 February 2053 at 05:49 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 406 076 km

This apogee Moon is 406 076 km (252 324 mi) away from Earth. It is 668 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 633 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

6 days after ascending node on 9 January 2053 at 21:36 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 24 January 2053 at 11:46 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 3 January 2053 at 18:58 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.398° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-18.367° at the point of next southern standstill on 17 January 2053 at 11:59 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 3 days

In 3 days on 19 January 2053 at 23:12 in ♑ Capricorn 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