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 50% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 18 May 2055 at 11:30 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 in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♓ Pisces later.

Strawberry Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2055 after 21 days on 9 June 2055 at 11:36.

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 ∠1780"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1780" and ∠1897".

Lunation 684 / 1637

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 684 of Meeus index or 1637 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.57 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 40 minutes and it is 2 hours and 22 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 56 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 7 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠221.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠221.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠254.3°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 8 May 2055 at 21:10 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 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 20 May 2055 at 18:43 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 402 575 km

The Moon is 402 575 km (250 149 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 756 km (251 504 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 17 May 2055 at 07:26 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 13 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 31 May 2055 at 13:01 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 14 May 2055 at 15:50 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.280° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.367° at the point of next northern standstill on 29 May 2055 at 04:41 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

13 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 8 days

In 8 days on 26 May 2055 at 12:57 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