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

Last Quarter in Scorpio

Last Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 48% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 2 February 2005 at 07:27 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠16° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

Snow Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2005 after 21 days on 24 February 2005 at 04:54.

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 ∠1915"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1915" and ∠1947".

Lunation 62 / 1015

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 62 of Meeus index or 1015 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 25 minutes and it is 17 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2005. 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 19 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 50 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠1.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠1.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠17.1°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 23 January 2005 at 18:54 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 7 February 2005 at 22:09 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 374 271 km

The Moon is 374 271 km (232 561 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 564 km (222 801 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 31 January 2005 at 22:49 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 13 February 2005 at 10:25 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

10 days since the last northern standstill on 22 January 2005 at 19:22 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.973° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.071° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 February 2005 at 21:10 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 8 February 2005 at 22:28 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