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

First Quarter in Leo

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 51% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 29 April 2012 at 09:58 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♌ Leo

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.

Flower Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2012 after 6 days on 6 May 2012 at 03:35.

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 ∠1862"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1862" and ∠1905".

Lunation 152 / 1105

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 152 of Meeus index or 1105 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.69 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 29 minutes and it is 1 hour and 14 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 45 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 18 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠168.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠168.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠191.8°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 22 April 2012 at 13:49 in ♉ Taurus the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 May 2012 at 03:33 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 384 888 km

The Moon is 384 888 km (239 158 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 356 954 km (221 801 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 24 April 2012 at 03:44 in ♊ Gemini the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 May 2012 at 09:43 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 25 April 2012 at 05:37 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.738° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.719° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 May 2012 at 06:18 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

19 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 6 May 2012 at 03:35 in ♏ Scorpio 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