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 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

6 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 6 days on 29 October 2086 at 07:40.

Beaver Moon after 16 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2086 after 16 days on 20 November 2086 at 20:12.

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% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1935".

Lunation 1073 / 2026

The Moon is 27 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1073 of Meeus index or 2026 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 57 minutes and it is 3 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2086. 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 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 50 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠181.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠181.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠206.3°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 3 November 2086 at 17:53 in ♎ Libra 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 19 November 2086 at 08:15 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 405 437 km

The Moon is 405 437 km (251 927 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 14 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 374 km (223 926 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 24 October 2086 at 18:13 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 8 November 2086 at 03:04 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 25 October 2086 at 17:01 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.669° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.623° at the point of next southern standstill on 9 November 2086 at 06:12 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 1 day

In 1 day on 6 November 2086 at 11:53 in ♏ Scorpio 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