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 4% 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 in ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 26 November 2078 at 07:54.

Cold Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2078 after 16 days on 18 December 2078 at 23:34.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1947".

Lunation 975 / 1928

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 975 of Meeus index or 1928 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.8 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 12 minutes and it is 30 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2078. 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 28 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 35 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠172.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠172.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠196.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 15:34 about 13 days since last perigee on 19 November 2078 at 08:57 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 15 days until point of next perigee on 17 December 2078 at 21:10 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 406 382 km

This apogee Moon is 406 382 km (252 514 mi) away from Earth. It is 974 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 327 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 1 December 2078 at 18:16 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 15 December 2078 at 19:09 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 22 November 2078 at 03:20 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.596° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.555° at the point of next southern standstill on 6 December 2078 at 12:06 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 2 days

In 2 days on 4 December 2078 at 12:08 in ♐ Sagittarius 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