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 53% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 22 October 2016 at 19:14 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 ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

Beaver Moon after 23 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2016 after 23 days on 14 November 2016 at 13:52.

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 ∠1908"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1908" and ∠1929".

Lunation 207 / 1160

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 207 of Meeus index or 1160 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.73 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 27 minutes and it is 1 hour and 13 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 4 hours and 43 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 20 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠144.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠144.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠170.6°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 16 October 2016 at 23:36 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 31 October 2016 at 19:29 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 375 628 km

The Moon is 375 628 km (233 404 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 660 km (252 687 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 13 October 2016 at 09:43 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 26 October 2016 at 01:44 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 20 October 2016 at 23:38 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.619° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.737° at the point of next southern standstill on 4 November 2016 at 13:04 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

23 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 8 days

In 8 days on 30 October 2016 at 17:38 in ♏ Scorpio 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