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

Last Quarter in Gemini

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 53% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 18 September 2003 at 19:03 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2003 after 21 days on 10 October 2003 at 07:27.

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 ∠1779"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1779" and ∠1910".

Lunation 45 / 998

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 45 of Meeus index or 998 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 43 minutes and it is 2 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 1 minute shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 8 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠301°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠301° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠325.5°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 16 September 2003 at 09:22 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 28 September 2003 at 05:59 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 402 815 km

The Moon is 402 815 km (250 298 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 837 km (225 456 mi).

Moon after ascending node

2 days after ascending node on 15 September 2003 at 23:28 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 29 September 2003 at 10:34 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 5 September 2003 at 11:54 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.746° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠26.874° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 September 2003 at 19:56 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

2 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 26 September 2003 at 03:09 in ♎ Libra 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