If you scan the sky after the sun sets this Sunday , July 12 , you ’ll see this calendar month ’s last quarter moon . And if you ’re a tyro sky - gazer , you might be surprised to find that half — not a tail — of the moon is lit .
The name is n’t related to how much of themoonis seeable , but rather , which phase of its monthly orbit around Earth it ’s presently in . The Old Farmer ’s Almanacsuggestspicturing the cycle like a baseball game rhombus : A new lunar month ( which you ca n’t see at all ) is household plate ; a first quarter lunation is first base ; a full moon is 2nd base ; and a third ( or last ) quarter moon is third base . In other words , the last quarter synodic month commemorate the last quarter of the oscillation before we get another young moon . And since we can see half of it , it ’s sometimes colloquially called a half moonshine .
As EarthSkyreports , July ’s last quartern moon hits its flower at 7:29 p.m. EDT on Sunday dark , but you could hold off until the sky catch darker for a clearer prospect . Though it ’s not thelastlast quarter lunation of the year , this one is extra special . Since it top out just four hours after the lunar culmination — the head in the lunation ’s orbit when it ’s uttermost from Earth — July ’s last quarter moon will be farther from the Earth than any other quarter moonshine this twelvemonth .
It wo n’t look perceptibly dimmer or more remote to the naked optic , but it ’s still a cool fact to refer to whomever hap to be around on Sunday night . On the following nights , you may keep an eye on the waning crescent develop slim and slender until the moonshine disappears completely onJuly 20and starts the oscillation over again .
[ h / tEarthSky ]
