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 37% 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 ∠10° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

1 day after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 1 day on 15 December 2098 at 07:52.

Wolf Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2099 after 21 days on 7 January 2099 at 01:50.

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 ∠1949"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1949" and ∠1950".

Lunation 1223 / 2176

The Moon is 23 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1223 of Meeus index or 2176 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 33 minutes and it is 2 hours and 10 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 2 hours and 49 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 14 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠78.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠78.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠115.9°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 11 December 2098 at 21:02 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 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 27 December 2098 at 21:01 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 367 834 km

The Moon is 367 834 km (228 561 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 11 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 186 km (251 771 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♎ Libra at 15:17 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 30 December 2098 at 20:34 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 9 December 2098 at 15:23 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.352° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.323° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 December 2098 at 16:33 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 22 December 2098 at 15:24 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