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

First Quarter in Libra

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 48% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 9 July 2038 at 16:00 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 ♎ Libra

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector.

Buck Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2038 after 6 days on 16 July 2038 at 11:48.

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 ∠1969"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.3% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1969" and ∠1887".

Lunation 476 / 1429

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 476 of Meeus index or 1429 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.46 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 8 minutes and it is 1 hour and 36 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit 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 1 hour and 36 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 33 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠259.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠259.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠293.3°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 26 June 2038 at 12:55 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 11 July 2038 at 19:32 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 363 978 km

The Moon is 363 978 km (226 165 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 2 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 368 535 km (228 997 mi).

Moon before descending node

6 days after ascending node on 2 July 2038 at 12:47 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 15 July 2038 at 11:58 in ♑ Capricorn.

Moon before southern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 2 July 2038 at 16:20 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.041° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠-23.036° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 July 2038 at 15:12 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 16 July 2038 at 11:48 in ♑ Capricorn 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