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

Last Quarter in Sagittarius

Last Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 53% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 23 February 2079 at 19:23 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2079 after 22 days on 17 March 2079 at 13:45.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1939".

Lunation 978 / 1931

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 978 of Meeus index or 1931 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.59 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 13 minutes and it is 2 hours and 32 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 1 hour and 29 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 34 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠261.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠261.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠296.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 18:10 about 12 days since last perigee on 11 February 2079 at 08:13 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 8 March 2079 at 01:47 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 404 236 km

This apogee Moon is 404 236 km (251 181 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's closest apogee of 2079. It is 1 172 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 185 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 21 February 2079 at 02:05 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 March 2079 at 01:24 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 12 February 2079 at 07:40 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.715° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.818° at the point of next southern standstill on 26 February 2079 at 08:11 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

15 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 3 March 2079 at 13:49 in ♓ Pisces 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