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

First Quarter in Virgo

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 56% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 15 May 2081 at 23:21 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠3° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Flower Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2081 after 6 days on 22 May 2081 at 20:26.

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 ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1897".

Lunation 1006 / 1959

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1006 of Meeus index or 1959 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 53 minutes and it is 2 hours and 10 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 51 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 18 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠265.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠265.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠298.3°.

Moon before perigee

13 days since point of apogee on 2 May 2081 at 14:12 in ♒ Aquarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next day until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 17 May 2081 at 14:15 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 363 302 km

The Moon is 363 302 km (225 745 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next day until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 369 266 km (229 451 mi).

Moon before descending node

12 days after ascending node on 4 May 2081 at 10:34 in ♓ Pisces 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 17 May 2081 at 20:00 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

4 days since the last northern standstill on 11 May 2081 at 21:38 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.437° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.376° at the point of next southern standstill on 24 May 2081 at 19:52 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 22 May 2081 at 20:26 in ♏ Scorpio 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