First
Quarter ♍ Virgo
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 ♌ Leo.
* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 20 May 2010 at 23:43 UTC.
Moon phases for next 7 days
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
Tuesday Tue
Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Moon phase and lunation details
Moonrise and moonset
Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.
Moon in ♌ Leo
Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.
Apparent angular diameter ∠1973"
Lunar disc appears visually 4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1896".
Flower Moon after 7 days
Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2010 after 7 days on 27 May 2010 at 23:07.
Upcoming main Moon phases
- Full Moon in Scorpio ♏ on 27 May 2010 at 23:07
- Last Quarter in Pisces ♓ on 4 June 2010 at 22:13
- New Moon in Gemini ♊ on 12 June 2010 at 11:15
- First Quarter in Virgo ♍ on 19 June 2010 at 04:30
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 128 / 1081
The Moon is 7 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving through the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 128 of Meeus index or 1081 from Brown series.
Synodic month length 29.42 days
The length of the lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes. It is 1 hour and 44 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 2 hours and 34 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 35 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 ∠311.3°.
Moon at perigee
Moon is at perigee at 08:38. It is 13 days after previous apogee on 6 May 2010 at 21:53 in ♒ Aquarius. Lunar orbit is going to widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth over the next 14 days, until point of next apogee on 3 June 2010 at 16:50 in ♒ Aquarius.
Distance to Moon 369 729 km
This perigee Moon is 369 729 km (229 739 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's farthest perigee of 2010. It is 7 221 km closer than the mean perigee distance, but it is still 627 km further than the closest perigee of 21st century.
Moon after descending node
2 days after descending node on 17 May 2010 at 15:39 in ♋ Cancer. The Moon is located south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days, until the lunar orbit crosses from South to North in ascending node on 30 May 2010 at 18:07 in ♑ Capricorn.
Draconic month
16 days since the beginning of current draconic month in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the cycle.
Moon after northern standstill
4 days since the previous standstill on 15 May 2010 at 23:07 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠25.049°, the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠-25.029° at the point of next southern standstill on 28 May 2010 at 22:09 in ♐ Sagittarius.
Syzygy in 7 days
In 7 days on 27 May 2010 at 23:07 in ♏ Scorpio 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.
