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 55% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 1 October 2056 at 23:33 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 ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2056 after 21 days on 23 October 2056 at 11:46.

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 ∠1793"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1793" and ∠1917".

Lunation 701 / 1654

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 701 of Meeus index or 1654 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.38 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 13 minutes and it is 7 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2056. 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 31 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 38 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠317.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠317.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠337.6°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 28 September 2056 at 07:58 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 10 October 2056 at 11:04 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 399 743 km

The Moon is 399 743 km (248 389 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 359 834 km (223 590 mi).

Moon before ascending node

13 days after descending node on 18 September 2056 at 05:52 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 2 October 2056 at 15:45 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

13 days since the last southern standstill on 17 September 2056 at 16:12 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-22.234° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠22.376° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 October 2056 at 03:51 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 9 October 2056 at 03:00 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