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

Last Quarter in Capricorn

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 23 March 2071 at 17:32 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 is entering ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Pink Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2071 after 22 days on 14 April 2071 at 13:56.

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 ∠1770"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1770" and ∠1925".

Lunation 880 / 1833

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 880 of Meeus index or 1833 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.61 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 14 hours and 32 minutes and it is 3 hours and 5 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 1 hour and 48 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 15 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠248.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠248.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠284.2°.

Moon before apogee

11 days since point of perigee on 12 March 2071 at 10:31 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 24 March 2071 at 10:06 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 405 042 km

The Moon is 405 042 km (251 681 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 399 km (251 282 mi).

Moon after ascending node

6 days after ascending node on 16 March 2071 at 21:22 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 31 March 2071 at 08:03 in ♈ Aries.

Moon at southern standstill

At 07:37 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-18.172°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠18.186° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 6 April 2071 at 04:30.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 31 March 2071 at 15:03 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