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

Last Quarter in Cancer

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 42% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 7 October 2050 at 16:32 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠25° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2050 after 21 days on 30 October 2050 at 03:16.

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 ∠1810"

Lunar disc appears visually 6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1810" and ∠1921".

Lunation 627 / 1580

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 627 of Meeus index or 1580 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 59 minutes and it is 6 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2050. 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 4 hours and 15 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 48 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠186.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠186.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠212°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 30 September 2050 at 00:42 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 October 2050 at 15:51 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 396 097 km

The Moon is 396 097 km (246 123 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 050 km (252 308 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 3 October 2050 at 00:50 in ♉ Taurus 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 17 October 2050 at 10:24 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 5 October 2050 at 19:06 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.840° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.790° at the point of next southern standstill on 20 October 2050 at 12:04 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 15 October 2050 at 20:48 in ♎ Libra 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