Waning
Crescent ♋ Cancer
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
Last Quarter 51% illuminated
Last Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 51% and getting smaller. The 22 days old Moon is in ♊ Gemini.
* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 20 September 2011 at 13:39 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Moon phase and lunation details
Moonrise and moonset
Moon rises at midnight and sets at noon. It is visible to the south in the morning.
Moon in ♊ Gemini
Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♋ Cancer later.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1829"
Lunar disc appears visually 4.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1829" and ∠1911".
Hunter Moon after 21 days
Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2011 after 21 days on 12 October 2011 at 02:06.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- New Moon in Libra ♎ on 27 September 2011 at 11:09
- First Quarter in Capricorn ♑ on 4 October 2011 at 03:15
- Full Moon in Aries ♈ on 12 October 2011 at 02:06
- Last Quarter in Cancer ♋ on 20 October 2011 at 03:30
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.
Lunation 144 / 1097
The Moon is 22 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 144 of Meeus index or 1097 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.34 days
Length of current 144 lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 5 minutes. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2011. It is 42 minutes shorter than next lunation 145 length.
Lunation length shorter than mean
Length of current synodic month is 4 hours and 39 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 1 hour and 30 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠333.4°
This lunation true anomaly is ∠333.4°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠350.1°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep decreasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
Moon after apogee
5 days after point of apogee on 15 September 2011 at 06:23 in ♈ Aries. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 7 days, until it get to the point of next perigee on 28 September 2011 at 01:01 in ♎ Libra.
Distance to Moon 391 800 km
Moon is 391 800 km (243 453 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next 7 days until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 357 556 km (222 175 mi).
Moon after descending node
1 day after its descending node on 19 September 2011 at 19:38 in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 11 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 2 October 2011 at 09:09 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Draconic month
15 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
Moon after northern standstill
1 day after previous North standstill on 19 September 2011 at 20:05 in ♊ Gemini, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠22.890°. Next 11 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-22.791° in the next southern standstill on 2 October 2011 at 11:38 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Syzygy in 6 days
After 6 days on 27 September 2011 at 11:09 in ♎ Libra, the Moon will be in New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy.