First Quarter Moon
First Quarter MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

First Quarter in Capricorn

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 63% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 11 September 2024 at 06:06 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Harvest Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2024 after 5 days on 18 September 2024 at 02:34.

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.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1866"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1866" and ∠1907".

Lunation 305 / 1258

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 305 of Meeus index or 1258 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.7 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 54 minutes and it is 1 hour and 4 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit 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 4 hours and 10 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 53 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠155.7°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠155.7° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠179.7°.

Moon before perigee

6 days since point of apogee on 5 September 2024 at 14:55 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 6 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 18 September 2024 at 13:26 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 384 150 km

The Moon is 384 150 km (238 700 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 284 km (222 006 mi).

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 5 September 2024 at 05:43 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 18 September 2024 at 19:51 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 04:51 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-28.671°. Over the upcoming 12 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠28.695° at the point of next northern standstill in ♊ Gemini on 24 September 2024 at 17:04.

Draconic month

21 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 18 September 2024 at 02:34 in ♓ Pisces 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.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov