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 57% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 21 days old.

* The exact date and time of this Last Quarter phase is on 1 April 2081 at 03:35 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 ∠4° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Pink Moon after 22 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2081 after 22 days on 23 April 2081 at 10:20.

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 ∠1812"

Lunar disc appears visually 5.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1812" and ∠1920".

Lunation 1004 / 1957

The Moon is 21 days old and navigating through the last part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1004 of Meeus index or 1957 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.71 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 58 minutes and it is 3 hours and 4 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 4 hours and 14 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠202.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠202.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠231.2°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 23 March 2081 at 16:38 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 4 April 2081 at 19:49 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 395 473 km

The Moon is 395 473 km (245 736 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 494 km (251 962 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 24 March 2081 at 07:17 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 April 2081 at 05:10 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 02:35 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-28.653°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠28.586° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 14 April 2081 at 16:08.

Draconic month

20 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 9 April 2081 at 08:15 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