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

Last Quarter in Capricorn

Last Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 56% and getting smaller. Lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 7 April 2056 at 01:33 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises at midnight and sets at noon. It is visible to the south in the morning.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠10° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Pink Moon after 23 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2056 after 23 days on 29 April 2056 at 18:31.

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 0.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1911" and ∠1917".

Lunation 695 / 1648

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 695 of Meeus index or 1648 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 58 minutes and it is 42 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2056. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠147°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠147° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠172.8°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 1 April 2056 at 03:57 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 15 April 2056 at 19:35 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 375 126 km

The Moon is 375 126 km (233 092 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 631 km (252 669 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 26 March 2056 at 07:57 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 7 April 2056 at 18:26 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon at southern standstill

At 13:41 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-21.566°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠21.717° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 21 April 2056 at 07:19.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 14 April 2056 at 23:50 in ♈ Aries 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