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

First Quarter in Scorpio

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 26 July 2069 at 05:30 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 ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

Sturgeon Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2069 after 6 days on 2 August 2069 at 23:44.

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 ∠1771"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1771" and ∠1890".

Lunation 860 / 1813

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 860 of Meeus index or 1813 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 50 minutes and it is 2 hours and 42 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 1 hour and 54 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 15 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠66.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠66.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠99.7°.

Moon after apogee

1 day since point of apogee on 26 July 2069 at 04:43 in ♏ Scorpio 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 7 August 2069 at 17:00 in ♈ Aries.

Distance to Moon 404 690 km

The Moon is 404 690 km (251 463 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 11 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 723 km (229 114 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 26 July 2069 at 17:40 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 9 August 2069 at 03:46 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 15 July 2069 at 22:08 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠19.867° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-19.783° at the point of next southern standstill on 30 July 2069 at 03:42 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 2 August 2069 at 23:44 in ♒ Aquarius 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