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 15 September 2052 at 19:48 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2052 after 21 days on 8 October 2052 at 10:54.

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 ∠1963"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1963" and ∠1909".

Lunation 651 / 1604

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 651 of Meeus index or 1604 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 26 minutes and it is 3 hours and 5 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 18 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 51 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠69.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠69.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠104.4°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 13 September 2052 at 06:22 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 28 September 2052 at 19:24 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 365 135 km

The Moon is 365 135 km (226 884 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 888 km (251 586 mi).

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 10 September 2052 at 07:41 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 23 September 2052 at 08:07 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 04:17 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.163°. This is the year's northernmost lunar standstill of 2052. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.151° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 30 September 2052 at 05:38.

Draconic month

20 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 22 September 2052 at 23:32 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