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

Waning Crescent in Virgo

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 5% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 27 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 15 September 2063 at 17:44.

Hunter Moon after 17 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2063 after 17 days on 7 October 2063 at 13:27.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1911".

Lunation 787 / 1740

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 787 of Meeus index or 1740 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.34 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 4 minutes and it is 1 hour and 21 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 4 hours and 40 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 29 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠358.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠358.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠14.3°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 6 September 2063 at 18:12 in ♒ Aquarius 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 21 September 2063 at 13:02 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 363 350 km

The Moon is 363 350 km (225 775 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 430 km (222 718 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♌ Leo at 16:51 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 4 October 2063 at 03:43 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 15 September 2063 at 22:42 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.212° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.165° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 September 2063 at 12:42 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 22 September 2063 at 09:21 in ♍ Virgo 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