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

Last Quarter in Sagittarius

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 51% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 3 March 2024 at 15:24 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠12° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2024 after 21 days on 25 March 2024 at 07:00.

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 ∠1861"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1861" and ∠1935".

Lunation 298 / 1251

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 298 of Meeus index or 1251 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.42 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 1 minute and it is 41 minutes longer 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 43 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 26 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠345.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠345.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠1.4°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 25 February 2024 at 15:00 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 March 2024 at 07:06 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 385 199 km

The Moon is 385 199 km (239 352 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 895 km (221 764 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 27 February 2024 at 22:53 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 12 March 2024 at 01:18 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 19 February 2024 at 08:47 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.376° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-28.477° at the point of next southern standstill on 5 March 2024 at 02:03 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 10 March 2024 at 09:00 in ♓ Pisces 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