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 56% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 8 December 2020 at 00:37 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 ∠9° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Cold Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2020 after 22 days on 30 December 2020 at 03:28.

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 ∠1928"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1928" and ∠1948".

Lunation 258 / 1211

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 258 of Meeus index or 1211 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 9 minutes and it is 1 hour and 35 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 1 hour and 35 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 34 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠12.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠12.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠30.1°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 27 November 2020 at 00:29 in ♉ Taurus 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 12 December 2020 at 20:42 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 371 740 km

The Moon is 371 740 km (230 989 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 777 km (224 798 mi).

Moon after ascending node

6 days after ascending node on 1 December 2020 at 07:46 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 14 December 2020 at 11:03 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 3 December 2020 at 01:22 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.882° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.879° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 December 2020 at 22:23 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 14 December 2020 at 16:17 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