New Delhi, Aug. 7 -- not fading, not brightening, but balanced at the exact midpoint between the month's brightest night and its darkest. That moment of equilibrium is the Last Quarter phase, and it arrives tonight with two of 2026's most significant celestial events still to come before August is out.

At 44 percent illumination, the moon tonight is 22.75 days into its current 29.5-day cycle. The right side of the disk is in darkness. The left side catches sunlight at a nearly perpendicular angle from Earth's perspective, producing the clean vertical terminator line that makes the Last Quarter the most visually sharp of the four principal phases. The moon is moving toward new.

When and where to look

The Last Quarter rises around midnig...