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 49% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 11 May 2015 at 10:36 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 ∠21° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Strawberry Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2015 after 22 days on 2 June 2015 at 16:19.

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 ∠1962"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1962" and ∠1900".

Lunation 189 / 1142

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 189 of Meeus index or 1142 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.39 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 16 minutes and it is 36 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2015. 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 3 hours and 28 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 41 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠27.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠27.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠48.8°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 29 April 2015 at 03:55 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 15 May 2015 at 00:23 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 365 406 km

The Moon is 365 406 km (227 053 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 366 024 km (227 437 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 1 May 2015 at 09:50 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 14 May 2015 at 20:37 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 7 May 2015 at 13:39 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.343° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.389° at the point of next northern standstill on 20 May 2015 at 09:41 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 18 May 2015 at 04:13 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