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

Last Quarter in Taurus

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 7 August 2015 at 02:03 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠20° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

Sturgeon Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2015 after 22 days on 29 August 2015 at 18:35.

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 ∠1933"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1933" and ∠1892".

Lunation 192 / 1145

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 192 of Meeus index or 1145 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.56 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 29 minutes and it is 2 hours and 19 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 45 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠112.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠112.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠144.1°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 2 August 2015 at 10:11 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 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 18 August 2015 at 02:33 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 370 737 km

The Moon is 370 737 km (230 365 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 852 km (252 185 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 4 August 2015 at 02:53 in ♈ Aries 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 17 August 2015 at 23:05 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 28 July 2015 at 17:34 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.344° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.288° at the point of next northern standstill on 10 August 2015 at 11:11 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 14 August 2015 at 14:54 in ♌ Leo 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