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

Last Quarter in Gemini

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 4 September 2083 at 06:24 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 is entering ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Harvest Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2083 after 22 days on 25 September 2083 at 23:25.

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 7.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1903".

Lunation 1034 / 1987

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1034 of Meeus index or 1987 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.47 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 22 minutes and it is 1 hour and 6 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 1 hour and 22 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 47 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠266.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠266.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠299.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 22:33 about 12 days since last perigee on 22 August 2083 at 01:59 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 16 September 2083 at 04:05 in ♏ Scorpio.

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 2083. 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 before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 25 August 2083 at 13:34 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 September 2083 at 21:09 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 22 August 2083 at 06:59 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-26.925° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠26.867° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 September 2083 at 03:16 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

8 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 8 days

In 8 days on 12 September 2083 at 00:07 in ♍ Virgo 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