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

Waning Crescent in Leo

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 5 September 2053 at 17:05.

Harvest Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2053 after 17 days on 27 September 2053 at 21:50.

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 ∠1954"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1954" and ∠1906".

Lunation 663 / 1616

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 663 of Meeus index or 1616 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 55 minutes and it is 2 hours and 23 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 20 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠23.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠23.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠43.5°.

Moon after perigee

1 day since point of perigee on 9 September 2053 at 15:22 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 21 September 2053 at 11:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 366 764 km

The Moon is 366 764 km (227 897 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 434 km (251 304 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 30 August 2053 at 03:39 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 12 September 2053 at 03:56 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

3 days since the last northern standstill on 7 September 2053 at 03:16 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.322° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.328° at the point of next southern standstill on 20 September 2053 at 10:22 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 12 September 2053 at 09:36 in ♍ Virgo 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