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 53% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 25 September 2039 at 04:53 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 ∠6° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2039 after 6 days on 2 October 2039 at 07:23.

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 2.8% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1969" and ∠1914".

Lunation 491 / 1444

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 491 of Meeus index or 1444 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.45 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 46 minutes and it is 9 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 58 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 11 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠294.5°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠294.5° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠321.1°.

Moon after perigee

2 days since point of perigee on 23 September 2039 at 02:18 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 8 October 2039 at 10:06 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 364 080 km

The Moon is 364 080 km (226 229 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 575 km (251 391 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 24 September 2039 at 01:47 in ♐ Sagittarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 7 October 2039 at 15:37 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon at southern standstill

At 19:27 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-25.118°. Over the upcoming 14 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠25.247° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 9 October 2039 at 20:04.

Draconic month

14 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♊ Gemini the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 2 October 2039 at 07:23 in ♈ Aries 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