First
Quarter ♉ Taurus
Moon phase on 23 January 2010 Saturday is First Quarter, 7 days young Moon is in Taurus.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinFirst Quarter is the lunar phase on . Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 51% and growing larger. The 7 days young Moon is in ♉ Taurus.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 23 January 2010 at 10:53 UTC.
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Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1854" and ∠1949".
Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2010 after 6 days on 30 January 2010 at 06:18.
There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.
The Moon is 7 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 124 of Meeus index or 1077 from Brown series.
Length of current 124 lunation is 29 days, 19 hours and 40 minutes. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2010. It is 1 hour and 30 minutes longer than next lunation 125 length.
Length of current synodic month is 6 hours and 56 minutes longer than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 7 minutes shorter, compared to 21st century longest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠164.3°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠188.9°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep decreasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).
6 days after point of apogee on 17 January 2010 at 01:40 in ♒ Aquarius. The lunar orbit is getting closer, while the Moon is moving inward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 6 days, until it get to the point of next perigee on 30 January 2010 at 09:03 in ♌ Leo.
Moon is 386 518 km (240 171 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves closer next 6 days until perigee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 356 593 km (221 577 mi).
8 days after its ascending node on 14 January 2010 at 23:18 in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next 5 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 29 January 2010 at 00:02 in ♋ Cancer.
8 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
11 days after previous South standstill on 12 January 2010 at 08:33 in ♐ Sagittarius, when Moon has reached southern declination of ∠-25.796°. Next 3 days the lunar orbit moves northward to face North declination of ∠25.783° in the next northern standstill on 26 January 2010 at 21:04 in ♊ Gemini.
After 6 days on 30 January 2010 at 06:18 in ♌ Leo, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.