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 49% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 22 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 28 September 2078 at 09:00 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2078 after 22 days on 21 October 2078 at 02:55.

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 ∠1936"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.1% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1936" and ∠1915".

Lunation 973 / 1926

The Moon is 22 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 973 of Meeus index or 1926 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 7 minutes and it is 2 hours and 43 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 2 hours and 23 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 40 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠115.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠115.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠146.4°.

Moon after perigee

4 days since point of perigee on 23 September 2078 at 13:38 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 9 October 2078 at 06:58 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 370 235 km

The Moon is 370 235 km (230 053 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 013 km (252 285 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 24 September 2078 at 13:18 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 October 2078 at 06:08 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon at northern standstill

At 11:14 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠27.518°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-27.596° at the point of next southern standstill in ♑ Capricorn on 13 October 2078 at 00:13.

Draconic month

3 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 5 October 2078 at 23:06 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