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

First Quarter in Scorpio

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 52% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 22 July 2072 at 09:02 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 is entering ♏ Scorpio

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♏ Scorpio tropical zodiac sector.

Buck Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon of July 2072 after 7 days on 30 July 2072 at 00:17.

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 ∠1927"

Lunar disc appears visually 2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1927" and ∠1889".

Lunation 897 / 1850

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 897 of Meeus index or 1850 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.31 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 7 hours and 25 minutes and it is 21 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2072. 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 5 hours and 19 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 50 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠333.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠333.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠350.4°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 17 July 2072 at 07:53 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 1 August 2072 at 19:10 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 371 979 km

The Moon is 371 979 km (231 137 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 886 km (252 206 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 18 July 2072 at 20:41 in ♍ Virgo the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 1 August 2072 at 17:10 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon before southern standstill

8 days since the last northern standstill on 14 July 2072 at 10:48 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.668° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 4 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.639° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 July 2072 at 08:30 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

3 days 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 7 days

In 7 days on 30 July 2072 at 00:17 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