Last Quarter Moon
Last Quarter MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

Last Quarter in Leo

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 45% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 7 November 2012 at 00:36 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

The moon rises at midnight and sets at noon. It is visible to the south in the morning.

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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

Beaver Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2012 after 21 days on 28 November 2012 at 14:46.

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 ∠1844"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1844" and ∠1937".

Lunation 158 / 1111

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 158 of Meeus index or 1111 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.42 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 5 minutes and it is 29 minutes shorter 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 39 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 30 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠334.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠334.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠351.3°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 1 November 2012 at 15:30 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 14 November 2012 at 10:21 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 388 688 km

The Moon is 388 688 km (241 520 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 361 km (222 054 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 31 October 2012 at 10:36 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 14 November 2012 at 04:37 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 2 November 2012 at 08:15 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠20.920° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-20.914° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 November 2012 at 16:10 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

20 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 6 days

In 6 days on 13 November 2012 at 22:08 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