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

Waning Crescent in Libra

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 in ♎ Libra

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 2 January 2081 at 08:32.

Wolf Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2081 after 21 days on 25 January 2081 at 04:01.

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 ∠1908"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1908" and ∠1951".

Lunation 1001 / 1954

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1001 of Meeus index or 1954 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.74 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 52 minutes and it is 1 hour and 23 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 8 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 55 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠119.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠119.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠151.7°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 28 December 2080 at 06:47 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 January 2081 at 23:29 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 375 673 km

The Moon is 375 673 km (233 432 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 193 km (252 397 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 1 January 2081 at 06:33 in ♍ Virgo 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 January 2081 at 13:46 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 26 December 2080 at 07:29 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.412° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.426° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 January 2081 at 08:04 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 10 January 2081 at 01:02 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