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

Last Quarter in Cancer

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 14 October 2006 at 00:25 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

Beaver Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2006 after 22 days on 5 November 2006 at 12:58.

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 ∠1823"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1823" and ∠1924".

Lunation 83 / 1036

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 83 of Meeus index or 1036 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.73 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 29 minutes and it is 25 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2006. 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 4 hours and 45 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠182.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠182.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠207.1°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 6 October 2006 at 14:07 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 19 October 2006 at 09:35 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 393 235 km

The Moon is 393 235 km (244 345 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 075 km (252 323 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 5 October 2006 at 22:11 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 19 October 2006 at 09:34 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 12 October 2006 at 08:52 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.678° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.595° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 October 2006 at 02:05 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

8 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 22 October 2006 at 05:14 in ♎ Libra 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