First Quarter on

Moon phase on 2 April 2009 Thursday is First Quarter, 7 days young Moon is in Cancer.

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Moon phase for

Lunar calendar 2009 | April 2009

First Quarter phase
First Quarter phase
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

First Quarter 49% illuminated

First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 49% and growing larger. The 7 days young Moon is in ♋ Cancer.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 2 April 2009 at 14:34 UTC.

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Moon phases for next 7 days

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Moon phase and lunation details

Moonrise and moonset

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

Moon in ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠11° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1973"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1919".

Pink Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2009 after 7 days on 9 April 2009 at 14:56.

Upcoming main Moon phases

  • Full Moon in Libra ♎ on 9 April 2009 at 14:56
  • Last Quarter in Capricorn ♑ on 17 April 2009 at 13:36
  • New Moon in Taurus ♉ on 25 April 2009 at 03:23
  • First Quarter in Leo ♌ on 1 May 2009 at 20:44

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.

Lunation 114 / 1067

The Moon is 7 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 114 of Meeus index or 1067 from Brown series.

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Synodic month length 29.47 days

The length of the lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 17 minutes. It is 2 hours and 29 minutes longer than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decreasing with the 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 27 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 42 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit position on

True anomaly ∠282.4°

At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠282.4°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠311.7°.

Moon at perigee

Moon is at perigee at 02:31. It is 13 days after previous apogee on 19 March 2009 at 13:16 in ♑ Capricorn. Lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the next 13 days, until point of next apogee on 16 April 2009 at 09:15 in ♑ Capricorn.

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Distance to Moon 370 014 km

This perigee Moon is 370 014 km (229 916 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's farthest perigee of 2009. It is 7 506 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 342 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 22 March 2009 at 02:12 in ♒ Aquarius. The Moon is located north of the ecliptic over the following day, until the lunar orbit crosses from North to South in descending node on 4 April 2009 at 07:22 in ♌ Leo.

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Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♒ Aquarius, the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the cycle.

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Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the previous standstill on 1 April 2009 at 02:50 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.780°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.665° at the point of next southern standstill on 14 April 2009 at 13:02 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Previous standstillNext standstill

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 9 April 2009 at 14:56 in ♎ Libra 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.

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