First Quarter Moon
First Quarter MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

First Quarter in Libra

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 54% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 7 July 2003 at 02:32 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

The moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

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 in ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠20° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

Buck Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2003 after 6 days on 13 July 2003 at 19:21.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1963"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1963" and ∠1887".

Lunation 43 / 996

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 43 of Meeus index or 996 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.51 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 14 minutes and it is 1 hour and 40 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 30 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 39 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠234.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠234.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠268.5°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 25 June 2003 at 02:25 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 10 July 2003 at 22:05 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 365 214 km

The Moon is 365 214 km (226 933 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 143 km (226 889 mi).

Moon before descending node

10 days after ascending node on 26 June 2003 at 14:34 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 10 July 2003 at 04:17 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 29 June 2003 at 21:14 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.455° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.465° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 July 2003 at 22:53 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

10 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 13 July 2003 at 19:21 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is going to be in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Earth-Moon 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