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 1% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 28 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

7 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 7 days on 26 November 2078 at 07:54.

Cold Moon after 15 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2078 after 15 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 28 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 after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 2 December 2078 at 15:34 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 14 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 17 December 2078 at 21:10 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 405 353 km

The Moon is 405 353 km (251 875 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 828 km (222 965 mi).

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 12 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

11 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 3 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

15 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 1 day

In 1 day 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