First
Quarter* ♒ Aquarius
Moon phase for
Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
First Quarter 45% illuminated
First Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 45% and growing larger. The 7 days young Moon is in ♑ Capricorn.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 26 October 2009 at 00:42 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
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 ♑ Capricorn
Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♒ Aquarius later.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1768"
Lunar disc appears visually 8.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1930".
Beaver Moon after 8 days
Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2009 after 8 days on 2 November 2009 at 19:14.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- First Quarter in Aquarius ♒ on 26 October 2009 at 00:42
- Full Moon in Taurus ♉ on 2 November 2009 at 19:14
- Last Quarter in Leo ♌ on 9 November 2009 at 15:56
- New Moon in Scorpio ♏ on 16 November 2009 at 19:14
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 121 / 1074
The Moon is 7 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 121 of Meeus index or 1074 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.57 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 13 hours and 41 minutes. It is 3 hours and 7 minutes shorter than the next lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increasing with the true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).
Lunation length longer than mean
The length of the current synodic month is 57 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 6 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.
Lunar orbit position on
True anomaly ∠65.2°
At the beginning of the lunation cycle the true anomaly is ∠65.2°. At the beginning of next synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠99.9°.
Moon at apogee
Moon is at apogee at 23:18. It is 12 days after previous perigee on 13 October 2009 at 12:28 in ♌ Leo. Lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the next 12 days, until point of next perigee on 7 November 2009 at 07:30 in ♋ Cancer.
Distance to Moon 404 168 km
This apogee Moon is 404 168 km (251 138 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's closest apogee of 2009. It is 1 240 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 117 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.
Moon in ascending node
Moon is in ascending node in ♑ Capricorn at 08:52 crossing the ecliptic from South to North to meet descending node 13 days later on 7 November 2009 at 23:25 in ♋ Cancer.
New draconic month
At 08:52 the Moon completes the previous draconic month and enters the new one.
Moon after southern standstill
2 days since the previous standstill on 22 October 2009 at 12:10 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.951°, the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.856° at the point of next northern standstill on 5 November 2009 at 15:31 in ♊ Gemini.
Syzygy in 8 days
In 8 days on 2 November 2009 at 19:14 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.
