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 18% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 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 ∠3° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

3 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 3 days on 5 December 2088 at 04:58.

Cold Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2088 after 19 days on 28 December 2088 at 00:57.

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 ∠1843"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1843" and ∠1948".

Lunation 1099 / 2052

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1099 of Meeus index or 2052 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.76 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 20 minutes and it is 1 hour and 6 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 36 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 27 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠131.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠131.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠160.8°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 29 November 2088 at 18:53 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 15 December 2088 at 03:25 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 388 874 km

The Moon is 388 874 km (241 635 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 541 km (252 613 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♎ Libra at 11:52 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 23 December 2088 at 02:43 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 29 November 2088 at 15:58 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.926° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.960° at the point of next southern standstill on 13 December 2088 at 04:28 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 11:52 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 13 December 2088 at 00:52 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