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 61% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 4 July 2071 at 10:02 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 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 2071 after 6 days on 12 July 2071 at 08:25.

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 ∠1863"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1863" and ∠1887".

Lunation 884 / 1837

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 884 of Meeus index or 1837 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.28 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 6 hours and 36 minutes and it is 44 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2071. 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 6 hours and 8 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 minute longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠350.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠350.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠5.3°.

Moon after perigee

7 days since point of perigee on 28 June 2071 at 08:00 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 July 2071 at 16:49 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 384 700 km

The Moon is 384 700 km (239 041 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 386 km (252 517 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 3 July 2071 at 14:17 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 12 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 18 July 2071 at 04:18 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 27 June 2071 at 07:57 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.410° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.403° at the point of next southern standstill on 10 July 2071 at 15:45 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 12 July 2071 at 08:25 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