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

Last Quarter in Aquarius

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 56% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 6 May 2010 at 04:15 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Flower Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2010 after 22 days on 27 May 2010 at 23:07.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1772"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1772" and ∠1902".

Lunation 127 / 1080

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 127 of Meeus index or 1080 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 35 minutes and it is 2 hours and 25 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 9 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠247.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠247.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠282.4°.

Moon before apogee

10 days since point of perigee on 24 April 2010 at 20:59 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 6 May 2010 at 21:53 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 479 km

The Moon is 404 479 km (251 332 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 231 km (251 177 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 3 May 2010 at 12:35 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 17 May 2010 at 15:39 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 1 May 2010 at 14:01 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.109° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.049° at the point of next northern standstill on 15 May 2010 at 23:07 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 14 May 2010 at 01:04 in ♉ Taurus 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