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

Last Quarter in Virgo

Last Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 54% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 28 November 2010 at 20:36 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Cold Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2010 after 22 days on 21 December 2010 at 08:13.

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 ∠1969"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1969" and ∠1945".

Lunation 134 / 1087

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 134 of Meeus index or 1087 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.53 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes and it is 2 hours and 43 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 same as the mean

The length of the current synodic month is equal to the mean synodic month length. It is %hours_to_shortest% and %minutes_to_shortest% longer than the 21st century's shortest and %hours_to_longest% and %minutes_to_longest% shorter than the 21st century's longest synodic months.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠39.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠39.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠67°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 15 November 2010 at 11:47 in ♓ Pisces 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 November 2010 at 19:09 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 363 985 km

The Moon is 363 985 km (226 170 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 439 km (229 559 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 24 November 2010 at 06:27 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 December 2010 at 04:15 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 23 November 2010 at 04:24 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.238° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.233° at the point of next southern standstill on 6 December 2010 at 02:10 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

18 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 5 December 2010 at 17:36 in ♐ Sagittarius 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