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

Last Quarter in Gemini

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 19 September 2030 at 19:56 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2030 after 21 days on 11 October 2030 at 10:47.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1910".

Lunation 379 / 1332

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 379 of Meeus index or 1332 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 47 minutes and it is 25 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 57 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 12 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠279.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠279.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠310.2°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 18 September 2030 at 18:09 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 September 2030 at 15:39 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 405 142 km

The Moon is 405 142 km (251 744 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 366 348 km (227 638 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 18 September 2030 at 10:12 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 1 October 2030 at 22:00 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon at northern standstill

At 02:24 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠22.208°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-22.097° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 2 October 2030 at 13:26.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 27 September 2030 at 09:55 in ♎ Libra 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