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 55% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 20 September 2080 at 22:48 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 ∠5° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Harvest Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2080 after 7 days on 29 September 2080 at 01:54.

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 ∠1783"

Lunar disc appears visually 7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1783" and ∠1912".

Lunation 998 / 1951

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 998 of Meeus index or 1951 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.43 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 19 minutes and it is 2 hours and 34 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 2 hours and 25 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 44 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠29.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠29.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠51.5°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 11 September 2080 at 22:03 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 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 23 September 2080 at 20:47 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 402 002 km

The Moon is 402 002 km (249 792 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 948 km (251 623 mi).

Moon after descending node

7 days after descending node on 14 September 2080 at 11:50 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 September 2080 at 19:44 in ♓ Pisces.

Moon at southern standstill

At 02:33 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach South declination of ∠-28.695°. This is the year's southernmost lunar standstill of 2080. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt northward to face maximum declination of ∠28.682° at the point of next northern standstill in ♋ Cancer on 5 October 2080 at 09:53.

Draconic month

19 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 29 September 2080 at 01:54 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