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

Last Quarter in Sagittarius

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 45% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 15 March 2023 at 02:08 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Pink Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2023 after 21 days on 6 April 2023 at 04:35.

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 ∠1952"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1952" and ∠1929".

Lunation 286 / 1239

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 286 of Meeus index or 1239 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 17 minutes and it is 32 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 2 hours and 27 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 42 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠15.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠15.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠34.1°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 3 March 2023 at 18:01 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 19 March 2023 at 15:16 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 367 214 km

The Moon is 367 214 km (228 176 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 698 km (225 370 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 11 March 2023 at 08:53 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 24 March 2023 at 02:08 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon at southern standstill

At 21:43 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-27.831°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠27.898° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 28 March 2023 at 21:29.

Draconic month

18 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 21 March 2023 at 17:23 in ♓ Pisces 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