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

Waning Crescent in Scorpio

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 2% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

5 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 5 days on 31 October 2056 at 16:12.

Beaver Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2056 after 15 days on 22 November 2056 at 06:12.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1963"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1963" and ∠1936".

Lunation 702 / 1655

The Moon is 28 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 702 of Meeus index or 1655 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.39 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 20 minutes and it is 50 minutes shorter 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 3 hours and 24 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 45 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠337.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠337.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠353.9°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 25 October 2056 at 20:58 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 7 November 2056 at 20:56 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 365 155 km

The Moon is 365 155 km (226 897 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 013 km (221 838 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 29 October 2056 at 17:10 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 11 November 2056 at 09:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 29 October 2056 at 11:13 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠22.641° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-22.728° at the point of next southern standstill on 11 November 2056 at 06:14 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

7 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 1 day

In 1 day on 7 November 2056 at 12:20 in ♏ Scorpio 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