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

First Quarter in Capricorn

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 45% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 20 October 2004 at 21:59 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 in ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠22° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2004 after 7 days on 28 October 2004 at 03:07.

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 ∠1970"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1970" and ∠1928".

Lunation 59 / 1012

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 59 of Meeus index or 1012 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.49 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 39 minutes and it is 37 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 5 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 4 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠302.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠302.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠327.5°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 18 October 2004 at 00:03 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 13 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 2 November 2004 at 18:09 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 363 811 km

The Moon is 363 811 km (226 062 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 13 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 999 km (251 655 mi).

Moon after descending node

5 days after descending node on 14 October 2004 at 21:47 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 27 October 2004 at 21:41 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 19 October 2004 at 08:00 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.048° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.042° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 November 2004 at 01:32 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 28 October 2004 at 03:07 in ♉ Taurus 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