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

Last Quarter in Gemini

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 52% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 21 September 2038 at 16:27 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♋ Cancer later.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2038 after 21 days on 13 October 2038 at 04:22.

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 ∠1801"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1801" and ∠1912".

Lunation 478 / 1431

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 478 of Meeus index or 1431 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.36 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 45 minutes and it is 10 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2038. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 59 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 10 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠319.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠319.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠339.4°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 17 September 2038 at 19:15 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 30 September 2038 at 00:20 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 397 927 km

The Moon is 397 927 km (247 260 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 444 km (223 348 mi).

Moon before ascending node

13 days after descending node on 7 September 2038 at 20:51 in ♑ Capricorn 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 September 2038 at 07:26 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 8 September 2038 at 03:20 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-23.232° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠23.372° at the point of next northern standstill on 22 September 2038 at 17:24 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

26 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 28 September 2038 at 18:57 in ♍ Virgo 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