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 55% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 5 December 2004 at 00:53 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Cold Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2004 after 22 days on 26 December 2004 at 15:06.

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 ∠1808"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1808" and ∠1947".

Lunation 60 / 1013

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 60 of Meeus index or 1013 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 2 minutes and it is 28 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 1 hour and 42 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 27 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠327.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠327.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠345.8°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 30 November 2004 at 11:25 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 12 December 2004 at 21:30 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 396 424 km

The Moon is 396 424 km (246 326 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 986 km (222 442 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 24 November 2004 at 04:05 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 December 2004 at 16:57 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 29 November 2004 at 08:28 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.963° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.935° at the point of next southern standstill on 13 December 2004 at 00:27 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

10 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 12 December 2004 at 01:29 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