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 62% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 14 June 2024 at 05:18 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 ∠9° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

Strawberry Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2024 after 6 days on 22 June 2024 at 01:08.

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 ∠1769"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1769" and ∠1889".

Lunation 302 / 1255

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 302 of Meeus index or 1255 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 20 minutes and it is 1 hour and 56 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 2 hours and 24 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 45 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠60.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠60.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠93.2°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 14 June 2024 at 13:36 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 11 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 27 June 2024 at 11:45 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 405 116 km

The Moon is 405 116 km (251 727 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 292 km (229 467 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♎ Libra at 20:17 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 29 June 2024 at 04:26 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 7 June 2024 at 16:40 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.365° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.345° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 June 2024 at 02:41 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

13 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 22 June 2024 at 01:08 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