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

Waning Crescent in Capricorn

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 42% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 23 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 11 March 2072 at 15:18.

Pink Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2072 after 21 days on 3 April 2072 at 01:25.

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 ∠1802"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1802" and ∠1930".

Lunation 892 / 1845

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 892 of Meeus index or 1845 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.76 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 18 minutes and it is 2 hours and 43 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 34 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 29 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠190.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠190.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠217.4°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 3 March 2072 at 18:40 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 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 16 March 2072 at 05:25 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 397 687 km

The Moon is 397 687 km (247 111 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 956 km (252 249 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 4 March 2072 at 21:20 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 18 March 2072 at 21:48 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 13:34 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-18.269°. This is the year's southernmost lunar standstill of 2072. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠18.306° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 27 March 2072 at 02:22.

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 7 days

In 7 days on 19 March 2072 at 20:21 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