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

First Quarter in Libra

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 51% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 17 July 2040 at 09:16 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♎ Libra

Moon is leaving the last ∠3° of ♎ Libra tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♏ Scorpio later.

Buck Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2040 after 6 days on 24 July 2040 at 02:05.

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 ∠1878"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1878" and ∠1888".

Lunation 501 / 1454

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 501 of Meeus index or 1454 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 12 minutes and it is 25 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's longest synodic month of 2040. 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 28 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 35 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠175.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠175.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠199°.

Moon before perigee

7 days since point of apogee on 9 July 2040 at 20:13 in ♋ Cancer 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 23 July 2040 at 19:15 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 381 765 km

The Moon is 381 765 km (237 218 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 113 km (221 900 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 5 July 2040 at 15:32 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 20 July 2040 at 02:18 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 8 July 2040 at 16:14 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.142° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.179° at the point of next southern standstill on 22 July 2040 at 14:28 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

11 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♉ Taurus the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 24 July 2040 at 02:05 in ♒ Aquarius 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