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

Last Quarter in Scorpio

Last Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 51% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 22 January 2006 at 15:14 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

Snow Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2006 after 21 days on 13 February 2006 at 04:44.

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 ∠1820"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1820" and ∠1950".

Lunation 74 / 1027

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 74 of Meeus index or 1027 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 3 minutes and it is 47 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 41 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 28 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠329.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠329.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠347.5°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 17 January 2006 at 19:07 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 January 2006 at 07:47 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 393 800 km

The Moon is 393 800 km (244 696 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 781 km (222 315 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 20 January 2006 at 12:06 in ♎ Libra 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 2 February 2006 at 08:02 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

9 days since the last northern standstill on 12 January 2006 at 13:12 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.410° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.492° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 January 2006 at 00:14 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

16 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 29 January 2006 at 14:15 in ♒ Aquarius 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