Last Quarter

When you can see it

It rises around midnight, stands highest at sunrise, and sets around noon, so it belongs to the second half of the night and the morning. Also called the third quarter, for the same reason: three quarters of the orbit is done.

What is happening up there

The moon is again 90 degrees from the sun, but on the other side, so the lit half we see is the opposite one from first quarter. Put a first quarter and a last quarter side by side and they form a complete disc, which is the geometry the moon phase compatibility trend is built on.

What a last quarter is said to mean

Read as the reckoning phase, the point for clearing and finishing rather than building. In the moon-planting tradition the waning half is the window for root crops, pruning, and harvesting for storage.

Worth saying plainly: these readings are tradition, not fact. The astronomy on this page is computed and checkable; the meanings are a cultural inheritance, offered because people find them enjoyable.

What to do under it

Excellent for telescopes for the same reason first quarter is, with the grazing light falling across the opposite half of the surface, so you see a different set of craters in relief.

Planting by the moon