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

First Quarter in Virgo

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 31 May 2009 at 03:22 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Strawberry Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2009 after 7 days on 7 June 2009 at 18:12.

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 ∠1924"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1924" and ∠1892".

Lunation 116 / 1069

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 116 of Meeus index or 1069 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.31 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 24 minutes and it is 24 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 5 hours and 20 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 49 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠332.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠332.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠349.4°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 26 May 2009 at 03:44 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 10 June 2009 at 16:04 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 372 460 km

The Moon is 372 460 km (231 436 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 786 km (252 144 mi).

Moon after descending node

3 days after descending node on 28 May 2009 at 10:19 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 11 June 2009 at 10:15 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 25 May 2009 at 16:56 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.451° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.429° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 June 2009 at 02:03 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 7 June 2009 at 18:12 in ♐ Sagittarius 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