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 48% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 5 July 2098 at 16:31 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 ∠12° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

Buck Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2098 after 7 days on 13 July 2098 at 10:35.

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 ∠1922"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1922" and ∠1887".

Lunation 1218 / 2171

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1218 of Meeus index or 2171 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.28 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 6 hours and 45 minutes and it is 17 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2098. 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 5 hours and 59 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 10 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠339.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠339.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠355.1°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 30 June 2098 at 07:43 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 15 July 2098 at 11:43 in ♒ Aquarius.

Distance to Moon 372 925 km

The Moon is 372 925 km (231 725 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 9 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 183 km (252 390 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 23 June 2098 at 14:19 in ♈ Aries 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 6 July 2098 at 02:56 in ♎ Libra.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 28 June 2098 at 19:01 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.163° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.167° at the point of next southern standstill on 11 July 2098 at 22:01 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 13 July 2098 at 10:35 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