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

Last Quarter in Aquarius

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 50% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 20 May 2025 at 11:59 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 ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Strawberry Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2025 after 21 days on 11 June 2025 at 07:44.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1911"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1911" and ∠1896".

Lunation 313 / 1266

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 313 of Meeus index or 1266 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.31 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 31 minutes and it is 2 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 5 hours and 13 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 56 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠2.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠2.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠17.8°.

Moon before perigee

9 days since point of apogee on 11 May 2025 at 00:49 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 26 May 2025 at 01:37 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 375 067 km

The Moon is 375 067 km (233 056 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 023 km (223 087 mi).

Moon before ascending node

12 days after descending node on 7 May 2025 at 23:44 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 22 May 2025 at 08:05 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon after southern standstill

4 days since the last southern standstill on 15 May 2025 at 18:44 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.484° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.442° at the point of next northern standstill on 28 May 2025 at 16:16 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

25 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 27 May 2025 at 03:02 in ♊ Gemini 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