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

First Quarter in Capricorn

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 64% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 9 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 6 September 2019 at 03:10 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 is entering ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing first ∠1° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Harvest Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2019 after 6 days on 14 September 2019 at 04:33.

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 ∠1840"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1840" and ∠1904".

Lunation 243 / 1196

The Moon is 9 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 243 of Meeus index or 1196 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.33 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes and it is 1 hour and 23 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 55 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 14 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠356.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠356.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠11.4°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 30 August 2019 at 15:57 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 13 September 2019 at 13:32 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 389 539 km

The Moon is 389 539 km (242 048 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 6 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 378 km (252 512 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 27 August 2019 at 01:50 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 September 2019 at 17:35 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 26 August 2019 at 17:53 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠22.473° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-22.539° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 September 2019 at 09:39 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 14 September 2019 at 04:33 in ♓ Pisces 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