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

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 9% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 26 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

4 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 4 days on 28 December 2067 at 19:10.

Wolf Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2068 after 16 days on 19 January 2068 at 09:45.

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 ∠1884"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1884" and ∠1951".

Lunation 840 / 1793

The Moon is 26 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 840 of Meeus index or 1793 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 33 minutes and it is 1 hour and 27 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 11 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 58 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠307.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠307.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠331.1°.

Moon before perigee

7 days since point of apogee on 25 December 2067 at 23:56 in ♌ Leo 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 6 January 2068 at 20:29 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 380 487 km

The Moon is 380 487 km (236 424 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 414 km (224 572 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 18:49 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next descending node later on 15 January 2068 at 11:57 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 19 December 2067 at 19:23 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠22.286° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-22.264° at the point of next southern standstill on 3 January 2068 at 06:48 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 18:49 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 5 January 2068 at 02:38 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