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

Last Quarter in Aries

Last Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 49% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 20 July 2071 at 08:52 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 ♈ Aries

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♉ Taurus later.

Sturgeon Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2071 after 21 days on 10 August 2071 at 23:39.

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 ∠1879"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1879" and ∠1888".

Lunation 884 / 1837

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 884 of Meeus index or 1837 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.28 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 6 hours and 36 minutes and it is 44 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2071. 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 6 hours and 8 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 minute longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠350.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠350.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠5.3°.

Moon before perigee

7 days since point of apogee on 12 July 2071 at 16:49 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 26 July 2071 at 17:22 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 381 372 km

The Moon is 381 372 km (236 974 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 370 km (222 059 mi).

Moon after descending node

2 days after descending node on 18 July 2071 at 04:18 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 July 2071 at 18:19 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 10 July 2071 at 15:45 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.403° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.332° at the point of next northern standstill on 24 July 2071 at 19:33 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 27 July 2071 at 00:56 in ♌ Leo 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