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

Last Quarter in Virgo

Last Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 47% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 21 November 2046 at 06:10 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises at midnight and sets at noon. It is visible to the south in the morning.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Cold Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2046 after 21 days on 13 December 2046 at 09:55.

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 ∠1951"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1951" and ∠1943".

Lunation 579 / 1532

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 579 of Meeus index or 1532 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 33 minutes and it is 2 hours and 16 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 11 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 58 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠16.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠16.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠35.1°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 9 November 2046 at 19:38 in ♓ Pisces 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 25 November 2046 at 18:09 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 367 381 km

The Moon is 367 381 km (228 280 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 050 km (225 589 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 18 November 2046 at 21:00 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 1 December 2046 at 12:55 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 16 November 2046 at 01:54 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.076° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.048° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 November 2046 at 22:56 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 27 November 2046 at 21:50 in ♏ Scorpio 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