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 46% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 3 July 2052 at 20:59 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 ∠8° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

Buck Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2052 after 8 days on 12 July 2052 at 00:23.

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 ∠1807"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1807" and ∠1887".

Lunation 649 / 1602

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 649 of Meeus index or 1602 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.32 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 41 minutes and it is 1 hour and 55 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 5 hours and 3 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 6 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠23.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠23.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠43°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 25 June 2052 at 08:22 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 4 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 7 July 2052 at 12:41 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 396 760 km

The Moon is 396 760 km (246 535 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 4 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 232 km (251 799 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♎ Libra at 14:53 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next descending node later on 17 July 2052 at 23:36 in ♈ Aries.

Moon before southern standstill

7 days since the last northern standstill on 26 June 2052 at 04:20 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.498° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.479° at the point of next southern standstill on 10 July 2052 at 04:04 in ♐ Sagittarius.

New draconic month

At 14:53 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 12 July 2052 at 00:23 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