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

Last Quarter in Leo

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 53% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 25 November 2013 at 19:28 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 ♌ Leo

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

Cold Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2013 after 21 days on 17 December 2013 at 09:28.

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 ∠1793"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1793" and ∠1944".

Lunation 171 / 1124

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 171 of Meeus index or 1124 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 32 minutes and it is 40 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 12 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 57 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠315°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠315° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠336.4°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 22 November 2013 at 09:50 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 4 December 2013 at 10:15 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 399 828 km

The Moon is 399 828 km (248 442 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 065 km (223 734 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 16 November 2013 at 05:30 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 November 2013 at 16:59 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 19 November 2013 at 17:18 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.534° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.552° at the point of next southern standstill on 3 December 2013 at 16:38 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 3 December 2013 at 00:22 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