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

Last Quarter in Virgo

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 42% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 14 November 2014 at 15:16 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 is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Cold Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2014 after 21 days on 6 December 2014 at 12:27.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1940".

Lunation 183 / 1136

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 183 of Meeus index or 1136 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.61 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 36 minutes and it is 1 hour and 32 minutes longer 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 52 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 11 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠252.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠252.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠289.3°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 01:56 about 12 days since last perigee on 3 November 2014 at 00:21 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 27 November 2014 at 23:11 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 338 km

This apogee Moon is 404 338 km (251 244 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 070 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 371 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 5 November 2014 at 03:13 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 19 November 2014 at 08:18 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 9 November 2014 at 23:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.575° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.625° at the point of next southern standstill on 24 November 2014 at 08:17 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 22 November 2014 at 12:32 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