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 48% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 4 May 2002 at 07:16 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 passing about ∠16° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Flower Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2002 after 21 days on 26 May 2002 at 11:51.

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 ∠1795"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1795" and ∠1903".

Lunation 28 / 981

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 28 of Meeus index or 981 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 24 minutes and it is 2 hours and 23 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 2 hours and 40 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 23 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠204.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠204.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠233.6°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 25 April 2002 at 16:25 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 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 7 May 2002 at 19:15 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 399 393 km

The Moon is 399 393 km (248 171 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 483 km (251 955 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 30 April 2002 at 00:29 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 14 May 2002 at 13:00 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon after southern standstill

2 days since the last southern standstill on 1 May 2002 at 16:55 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-24.975° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.039° at the point of next northern standstill on 16 May 2002 at 07:53 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

17 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 12 May 2002 at 10:45 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