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

First Quarter in Sagittarius

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 50% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 11 September 2043 at 13:01 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Harvest Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2043 after 7 days on 19 September 2043 at 01:47.

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 ∠1772"

Lunar disc appears visually 7.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1772" and ∠1906".

Lunation 540 / 1493

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 540 of Meeus index or 1493 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.58 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 55 minutes and it is 2 hours and 50 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 11 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 52 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠88.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠88.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠123.9°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 10 September 2043 at 03:40 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 22 September 2043 at 00:24 in ♉ Taurus.

Distance to Moon 404 446 km

The Moon is 404 446 km (251 311 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 10 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 389 km (227 042 mi).

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 4 September 2043 at 23:58 in ♍ Virgo 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 19 September 2043 at 07:48 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 29 August 2043 at 09:18 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.661° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-28.703° at the point of next southern standstill on 12 September 2043 at 11:52 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 19 September 2043 at 01:47 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