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

Last Quarter in Virgo

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 57% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 5 December 2023 at 05:49 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 is entering ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Cold Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2023 after 22 days on 27 December 2023 at 00:33.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1947".

Lunation 295 / 1248

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 295 of Meeus index or 1248 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.59 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 5 minutes and it is 1 hour and 40 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 21 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 42 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠269.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠269.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠303.6°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 18:42 about 12 days since last perigee on 21 November 2023 at 21:03 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 16 December 2023 at 18:53 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 404 348 km

This apogee Moon is 404 348 km (251 250 mi) away from Earth. It is 1 060 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 361 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 24 November 2023 at 11:02 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 December 2023 at 15:24 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 29 November 2023 at 14:08 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.191° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 9 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.151° at the point of next southern standstill on 13 December 2023 at 21:51 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 12 December 2023 at 23:32 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