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 26% 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠24° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 10 February 2072 at 23:27.

Worm Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2072 after 20 days on 4 March 2072 at 15:17.

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 ∠1810"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1810" and ∠1943".

Lunation 891 / 1844

The Moon is 24 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 891 of Meeus index or 1844 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.81 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 29 minutes and it is 1 hour and 11 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2072. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 6 hours and 44 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠166.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠166.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠190.8°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 4 February 2072 at 06:26 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 17 February 2072 at 20:18 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 396 082 km

The Moon is 396 082 km (246 114 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 547 km (252 617 mi).

Moon after ascending node

7 days after ascending node on 6 February 2072 at 10:25 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 20 February 2072 at 15:17 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

12 days since the last northern standstill on 1 February 2072 at 09:58 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.364° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-18.318° at the point of next southern standstill on 14 February 2072 at 06:42 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 19 February 2072 at 02:03 in ♓ Pisces 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