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 47% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 24 May 2083 at 18:11 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 ♍ Virgo

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♍ Virgo tropical zodiac sector.

Flower Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Flower Moon of May 2083 after 6 days on 31 May 2083 at 09:42.

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 ∠1877"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1877" and ∠1894".

Lunation 1031 / 1984

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 1031 of Meeus index or 1984 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 24 minutes and it is 1 hour and 7 minutes longer than the upcoming lunation's length. 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 40 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 23 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠180.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠180.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠203.8°.

Moon before perigee

7 days since point of apogee on 16 May 2083 at 17:26 in ♉ Taurus 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 30 May 2083 at 23:07 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 381 875 km

The Moon is 381 875 km (237 286 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 6 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 357 245 km (221 982 mi).

Moon after descending node

1 day after descending node on 22 May 2083 at 23:17 in ♌ Leo the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 4 June 2083 at 11:34 in ♒ Aquarius.

Moon after northern standstill

5 days since the last northern standstill on 19 May 2083 at 00:24 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠26.923° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠-26.909° at the point of next southern standstill on 1 June 2083 at 05:43 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

16 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 31 May 2083 at 09:42 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