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 40% 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 is entering ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 11 December 2055 at 15:05.

Wolf Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2056 after 21 days on 2 January 2056 at 22:05.

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 ∠1968"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1968" and ∠1949".

Lunation 691 / 1644

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 691 of Meeus index or 1644 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 41 minutes and it is 2 hours and 14 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 1 hour and 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠24.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠24.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠45.5°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 29 November 2055 at 09:39 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 December 2055 at 10:52 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 364 160 km

The Moon is 364 160 km (226 279 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 611 km (227 180 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 8 December 2055 at 02:26 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 20 December 2055 at 21:00 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 6 December 2055 at 12:59 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.161° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.183° at the point of next southern standstill on 19 December 2055 at 10:14 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

4 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 18 December 2055 at 08:15 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