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

Waning Crescent in Scorpio

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 38% 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 6 January 2078 at 05:04.

Wolf Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2078 after 20 days on 28 January 2078 at 01:33.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1951".

Lunation 964 / 1917

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 964 of Meeus index or 1917 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 8 minutes and it is 2 hours and 23 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 2 hours and 24 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 39 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠258.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠258.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠294.9°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 6 January 2078 at 08:03 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 18 January 2078 at 18:32 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 404 843 km

The Moon is 404 843 km (251 558 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 308 km (229 477 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 26 December 2077 at 14:03 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 9 January 2078 at 15:53 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 29 December 2077 at 11:30 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.449° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.463° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 January 2078 at 21:22 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 14 January 2078 at 01:14 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