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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 37% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 23 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠6° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 8 February 2056 at 07:01.

Worm Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2056 after 21 days on 2 March 2056 at 00:40.

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 ∠1950"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1950" and ∠1945".

Lunation 693 / 1646

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 693 of Meeus index or 1646 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.66 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 49 minutes and it is 1 hour and 4 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 5 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 58 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠75.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠75.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠113.6°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 4 February 2056 at 23:51 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 20 February 2056 at 22:27 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 367 661 km

The Moon is 367 661 km (228 454 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 159 km (251 754 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 31 January 2056 at 16:41 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 February 2056 at 13:45 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 30 January 2056 at 06:21 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.178° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.191° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 February 2056 at 02:37 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

8 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 15 February 2056 at 14:00 in ♒ Aquarius 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