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 51% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 23 April 2098 at 13:33 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Flower Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2098 after 21 days on 15 May 2098 at 07:16.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1908".

Lunation 1215 / 2168

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1215 of Meeus index or 2168 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 45 minutes and it is 2 hours and 54 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 minute longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 7 hours and 2 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠260.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠260.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠294.5°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 14:16 about 12 days since last perigee on 11 April 2098 at 03:38 in ♌ Leo 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 6 May 2098 at 02:31 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 404 262 km

This apogee Moon is 404 262 km (251 197 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's closest apogee of 2098. It is 1 146 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 211 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 15 April 2098 at 14:53 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 April 2098 at 01:09 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 21 April 2098 at 01:51 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.319° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.285° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 May 2098 at 02:37 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

20 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 7 days

In 7 days on 1 May 2098 at 08:32 in ♉ Taurus 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