Last Quarter on

Moon phase on 8 December 2020 Tuesday is Last Quarter, 22 days old Moon is in Virgo.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2020 | December 2020

Last Quarter phase
Last Quarter phase
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

Last Quarter 45% illuminated

Last Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 45% and getting smaller. The 22 days old Moon is in ♍ Virgo.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 8 December 2020 at 00:37 UTC.

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Moon phases for next 7 days

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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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1947"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.1% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1947" and ∠1948".

Cold Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2020 after 21 days on 30 December 2020 at 03:28.

Upcoming main Moon phases

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 258 / 1211

The Moon is 22 days old. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the last part of current synodic month. This is lunation 258 of Meeus index or 1211 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 9 minutes. It is 1 hour and 35 minutes shorter than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increasing with the true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 35 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 34 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠12.4°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠12.4°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠30.1°.

Moon before apogee

11 days after point of apogee on 27 November 2020 at 00:29 in ♉ Taurus. The lunar orbit is getting narrow, while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days, until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 12 December 2020 at 20:42 in ♏ Scorpio.

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Distance to Moon 368 168 km

The Moon is 368 168 km (228 769 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 777 km (224 798 mi).

Moon before descending node

7 days after ascending node on 1 December 2020 at 07:46 in ♊ Gemini. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 14 December 2020 at 11:03 in ♐ Sagittarius.

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Draconic month

7 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♊ Gemini, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.

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Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the previous standstill on 3 December 2020 at 01:22 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.882°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-24.879° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 December 2020 at 22:23 in ♑ Capricorn.

Previous standstillNext standstill

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 14 December 2020 at 16:17 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.

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