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 27% 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 19 December 2057 at 05:02.

Wolf Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2058 after 19 days on 9 January 2058 at 20:39.

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 ∠1900"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1900" and ∠1951".

Lunation 716 / 1669

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 716 of Meeus index or 1669 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 1 minute and it is 8 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 44 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 25 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠339°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠339° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠355.4°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 13 December 2057 at 06:08 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 26 December 2057 at 07:44 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 377 342 km

The Moon is 377 342 km (234 469 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 883 km (221 757 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 11 December 2057 at 10:23 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 25 December 2057 at 08:50 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 12 December 2057 at 21:42 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.523° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.515° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 December 2057 at 12:09 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 26 December 2057 at 01:22 in ♑ Capricorn 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