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 55% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 27 April 2046 at 23:30 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Flower Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2046 after 22 days on 20 May 2046 at 03:15.

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 ∠1800"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1800" and ∠1906".

Lunation 572 / 1525

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 572 of Meeus index or 1525 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes and it is 2 hours and 38 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 20 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 43 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠209.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠209.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠239.2°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 19 April 2046 at 02:59 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 1 May 2046 at 03:41 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 398 306 km

The Moon is 398 306 km (247 496 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 206 km (251 783 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 15 April 2046 at 07:10 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 April 2046 at 02:09 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 24 April 2046 at 09:26 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.852° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.750° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 May 2046 at 23:01 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

26 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 6 May 2046 at 02:56 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