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

First Quarter in Sagittarius

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 51% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 23 August 2004 at 10:12 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon is entering ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Sturgeon Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon of August 2004 after 6 days on 30 August 2004 at 02:22.

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 ∠1959"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1959" and ∠1898".

Lunation 57 / 1010

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 57 of Meeus index or 1010 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.55 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 5 minutes and it is 46 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 21 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 42 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠234°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠234° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠269.4°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 11 August 2004 at 09:34 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 27 August 2004 at 05:37 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 365 851 km

The Moon is 365 851 km (227 329 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 106 km (226 866 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 21 August 2004 at 12:11 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 3 September 2004 at 06:34 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 12 August 2004 at 02:38 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠27.674° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠-27.776° at the point of next southern standstill on 25 August 2004 at 20:48 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 30 August 2004 at 02:22 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