First
Quarter ♍ Virgo
Moon phase on 20 May 2010 Thursday is Waxing Crescent, 7 days young Moon is in Leo.
Share this page: twitter facebook linkedinFirst 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.
Friday Fri
Saturday Sat
Sunday Sun
Monday Mon
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Wednesday Wed
Thursday Thu
Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.
Moon is passing about ∠23° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1973" and ∠1896".
Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2010 after 7 days on 27 May 2010 at 23:07.
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.
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.
Length of current 128 lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes. It is 1 hour and 44 minutes longer than next lunation 129 length.
Length of current synodic month is 2 hours and 34 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 3 hours and 35 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
This lunation true anomaly is ∠282.4°. At the beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠311.3°. 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°).
Moon is reaching point of perigee on this date at 08:38, this is 13 days after last apogee on 6 May 2010 at 21:53 in ♒ Aquarius. Lunar orbit is starting to get wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth for 14 days ahead, until it will get to the point of next apogee on 3 June 2010 at 16:50 in ♒ Aquarius.
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 farther than the closest perigee of 21st century.
2 days after its descending node on 17 May 2010 at 15:39 in ♋ Cancer, the Moon is following the southern part of its orbit for the next 10 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from South to North in ascending node on 30 May 2010 at 18:07 in ♑ Capricorn.
16 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♑ Capricorn, the Moon is moving from the second to the final part of it.
4 days after previous North standstill on 15 May 2010 at 23:07 in ♊ Gemini, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠25.049°. Next 8 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-25.029° in the next southern standstill on 28 May 2010 at 22:09 in ♐ Sagittarius.
After 7 days on 27 May 2010 at 23:07 in ♏ Scorpio, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.