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

Last Quarter in Pisces

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 43% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 27 May 2046 at 17:06 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 ♓ Pisces

Moon is passing about ∠16° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector.

Strawberry Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2046 after 21 days on 18 June 2046 at 13:10.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1893".

Lunation 573 / 1526

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 573 of Meeus index or 1526 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 26 minutes and it is 2 hours and 10 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 18 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 51 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠239.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠239.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠274°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 21:55 about 11 days since last perigee on 16 May 2046 at 23:31 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 14 days until point of next perigee on 12 June 2046 at 03:54 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 404 334 km

This apogee Moon is 404 334 km (251 241 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 074 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 375 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 25 May 2046 at 04:58 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 June 2046 at 09:42 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

6 days since the last southern standstill on 21 May 2046 at 18:34 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.705° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠26.677° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 June 2046 at 05:17 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 4 June 2046 at 15:22 in ♊ Gemini 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