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 50% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 24 September 2073 at 12:32 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 21 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2073 after 21 days on 16 October 2073 at 01:54.

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 ∠1833"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1833" and ∠1913".

Lunation 911 / 1864

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 911 of Meeus index or 1864 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.35 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 29 minutes and it is 23 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2073. 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 4 hours and 15 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 54 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠334.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠334.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠351.1°.

Moon after apogee

5 days since point of apogee on 19 September 2073 at 03:23 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 October 2073 at 22:53 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 391 087 km

The Moon is 391 087 km (243 010 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 437 km (222 101 mi).

Moon before ascending node

10 days after descending node on 13 September 2073 at 16:02 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 September 2073 at 04:00 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

14 days since the last southern standstill on 10 September 2073 at 08:21 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-19.604° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠19.692° at the point of next northern standstill on 25 September 2073 at 01:43 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 1 October 2073 at 10:21 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