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

Last Quarter in Cancer

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 57% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 24 October 2054 at 02:39 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Beaver Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2054 after 22 days on 15 November 2054 at 08:49.

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 ∠1948"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1948" and ∠1929".

Lunation 677 / 1630

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 677 of Meeus index or 1630 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 12 minutes and it is 2 hours and 20 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 32 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 37 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠23.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠23.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠44°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 12 October 2054 at 01:43 in ♒ Aquarius 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 28 October 2054 at 01:15 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 367 961 km

The Moon is 367 961 km (228 640 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 225 km (226 940 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 12 October 2054 at 01:43 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 25 October 2054 at 21:32 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 22 October 2054 at 10:52 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.417° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.520° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 November 2054 at 07:53 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

24 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 30 October 2054 at 20:01 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