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

First Quarter in Virgo

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 46% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 7 June 2068 at 22:20 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing about ∠13° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Strawberry Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2068 after 8 days on 15 June 2068 at 17:00.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1890".

Lunation 846 / 1799

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 846 of Meeus index or 1799 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 35 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 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 ∠66°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠66° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠99.8°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 22:05 about 12 days since last perigee on 26 May 2068 at 09:16 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 20 June 2068 at 10:58 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 404 221 km

This apogee Moon is 404 221 km (251 171 mi) away from Earth. This is the year's closest apogee of 2068. It is 1 187 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 170 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon before ascending node

7 days after descending node on 30 May 2068 at 13:21 in ♉ Taurus 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 13 June 2068 at 23:06 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon after northern standstill

6 days since the last northern standstill on 31 May 2068 at 17:47 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠21.451° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-21.453° at the point of next southern standstill on 15 June 2068 at 04:19 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

20 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 15 June 2068 at 17:00 in ♐ Sagittarius 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