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

Last Quarter in Libra

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 46% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 15 January 2023 at 02:10 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

Snow Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2023 after 21 days on 5 February 2023 at 18:29.

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 ∠1869"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1869" and ∠1951".

Lunation 284 / 1237

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 284 of Meeus index or 1237 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 36 minutes and it is 23 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2023. 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 2 hours and 8 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 1 minute longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠344.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠344.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠360°.

Moon before perigee

7 days since point of apogee on 8 January 2023 at 09:19 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 21 January 2023 at 20:58 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 383 504 km

The Moon is 383 504 km (238 298 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 570 km (221 562 mi).

Moon before descending node

13 days after ascending node on 1 January 2023 at 15:25 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 16 January 2023 at 06:32 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 6 January 2023 at 03:08 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.406° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.461° at the point of next southern standstill on 20 January 2023 at 05:06 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the first to the middle part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 21 January 2023 at 20:53 in ♑ Capricorn 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