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

Last Quarter in Taurus

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 6 August 2026 at 02:21 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

Sturgeon Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2026 after 22 days on 28 August 2026 at 04:18.

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 ∠1937"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1937" and ∠1892".

Lunation 328 / 1281

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 328 of Meeus index or 1281 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 53 minutes and it is 1 hour and 57 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 51 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 18 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠18°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠18° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠36.5°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 25 July 2026 at 16:45 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 10 August 2026 at 11:18 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 370 118 km

The Moon is 370 118 km (229 981 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 4 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 288 km (225 737 mi).

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 31 July 2026 at 11:54 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 13 August 2026 at 09:56 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

10 days since the last southern standstill on 26 July 2026 at 03:56 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.067° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.107° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 August 2026 at 23:42 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 12 August 2026 at 17:37 in ♌ Leo 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