View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Meiying Lee in Taipei, Taiwan, captured this photo of a waning crescent moon on April 29, 2022, and wrote: “This is the changing process of the waning moon rising in the early morning yesterday (April 29) and finally disappearing into the sky. When the waning moon rises in the dark sky, it appears red due to atmospheric scattering. Before the sun rises, the sky slowly turns orange, and the moon turns a beautiful golden color with it. At last, the sky became brighter and brighter, and the moon gradually turned gray and white, and finally merged with the sky and disappeared.” Thank you, Meiying!
You’ll see a waning crescent moon – sometimes called an old moon – in the east before dawn.
On each successive morning, a waning crescent moon will show us less and less of its lighted portion, or day side. Each day, it rises closer to the sunrise, heading for new moon, when the moon will be between the Earth and the sun.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | James Trezza in Mt. Sinai, New York, captured this photo of the moon together with Mercury and Venus on May 13, 2021, and wrote: “The waxing crescent moon, 4.5% illuminated, setting next to Mercury, with Venus about to set at the bottom!” Thank you, James!
The illuminated side of a waning crescent moon always points eastward, or in the direction of sunrise.
What’s more, the lit side of waning crescent points in the direction of the moon’s daily motion relative to the backdrop stars and planets of the zodiac. That direction is also east.
Many people miss the waning crescent moon because it’s a morning moon, visible before sunrise. But it’s fun to follow the waning crescent day by day, as it inches into the dawn glare.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steven A. Sweet of Lunar 101 Moon Book caught this amazing little waning crescent moon – only 16 hours and 54 minutes from new moon – on August 18, 2020. Congratulations, Steven!
Bottom line: A waning crescent moon falls between the last quarter moon phase and the new moon phase. You’ll find a waning crescent moon in the east before sunrise.
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
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