Wednesday October 31^st the 22-day old last quarter Moon will be crossing the ecliptic moving north. This is known as the ascending node, one of two intersections the Moon’s orbital path has with the ecliptic. (see animated graphic below)
   Also on that same day, Wednesday October 31^st, the last quarter Moon reaches perigee, (closest distance from Earth). At that time the Moon will more or less be at a distance of 29.025 Earth diameters, (230,032 miles 370,201 km), from the Earth.

On the day of perigee and ascending node the first quarter Moon rises at around midnight and is only a few degrees away from the open star cluster M-44, the Beehive Cluster.

   
   
   

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