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

Waning Crescent in Gemini

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 31% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 24 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠6° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 3 August 2056 at 11:52.

Sturgeon Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2056 after 19 days on 25 August 2056 at 06:00.

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 ∠1774"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1774" and ∠1892".

Lunation 699 / 1652

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 699 of Meeus index or 1652 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 28 minutes and it is 1 hour and 29 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 16 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 53 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠255.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠255.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠289.7°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 3 August 2056 at 19:11 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 16 August 2056 at 15:34 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 404 104 km

The Moon is 404 104 km (251 099 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 236 km (229 433 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 25 July 2056 at 20:38 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 9 August 2056 at 05:07 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 25 July 2056 at 04:24 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.000° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠22.019° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 August 2056 at 11:18 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 11 August 2056 at 07:48 in ♌ Leo 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