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

Last Quarter in Libra

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 45% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 27 December 2002 at 00:31 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

Wolf Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2003 after 21 days on 18 January 2003 at 10:48.

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 ∠1970"

Lunar disc appears visually 1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1970" and ∠1951".

Lunation 36 / 989

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 36 of Meeus index or 989 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 48 minutes and it is 1 hour and 38 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 59 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠32.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠32.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠56.5°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 14 December 2002 at 03:57 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 December 2002 at 01:06 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 363 777 km

The Moon is 363 777 km (226 041 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 367 904 km (228 605 mi).

Moon before descending node

9 days after ascending node on 18 December 2002 at 06:47 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 31 December 2002 at 11:16 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 20 December 2002 at 18:29 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.790° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.783° at the point of next southern standstill on 2 January 2003 at 16:56 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 2 January 2003 at 20:23 in ♑ Capricorn 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