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 35% 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 passing about ∠25° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 27 December 2086 at 21:58.

Wolf Moon after 20 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2087 after 20 days on 18 January 2087 at 22:11.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1951".

Lunation 1075 / 2028

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1075 of Meeus index or 2028 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.68 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 23 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 3 hours and 39 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 24 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠238°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠238° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠275.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 03:31 about 11 days since last perigee on 17 December 2086 at 09:07 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next perigee on 12 January 2087 at 13:20 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 404 509 km

This apogee Moon is 404 509 km (251 350 mi) away from Earth. It is 899 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 200 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 18 December 2086 at 14:55 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 1 January 2087 at 17:04 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 19 December 2086 at 14:19 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.627° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.607° at the point of next southern standstill on 2 January 2087 at 20:57 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 4 January 2087 at 22:11 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