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

Last Quarter in Scorpio

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 47% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 24 January 2014 at 05:19 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠8° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

Snow Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2014 after 21 days on 14 February 2014 at 23:53.

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 ∠1892"

Lunar disc appears visually 3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1892" and ∠1949".

Lunation 173 / 1126

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 173 of Meeus index or 1126 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 24 minutes and it is 3 minutes longer 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 20 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 49 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠353°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠353° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠8.3°.

Moon before perigee

8 days since point of apogee on 16 January 2014 at 01:53 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 January 2014 at 09:58 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 378 782 km

The Moon is 378 782 km (235 364 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 080 km (221 879 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♏ Scorpio at 02:55 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next descending node later on 5 February 2014 at 12:41 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 13 January 2014 at 08:14 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.501° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.396° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 January 2014 at 16:31 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 02:55 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 6 days

In 6 days on 30 January 2014 at 21:39 in ♒ Aquarius 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