Simulated image courtesy of Tom Ruen.

Moon at First Quarter

Dominic Ford, Editor
From the Moon feed

Objects: The Moon
Please wait
Loading 0/4
Click and drag to rotate
Mouse wheel to zoom in/out
Touch with mouse to dismiss
The sky at

The Moon will pass first quarter phase, appearing prominent in the evening sky and setting in the middle of the night.

From Ashburn , it will be visible from soon after it rises, at 14:23, until soon before it sets at 23:40.

Begin typing the name of a town near to you, and then select the town from the list of options which appear below.

At this time in its monthly cycle of phases, it appears almost exactly half illuminated.

The Moon orbits the Earth once every four weeks, causing its phases to cycle through new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter, and back to new moon once every 29.5 days.

As it progresses through this cycle, it is visible at different times of day. At first quarter, it appears high in the sky at sunset before sinking towards the horizon and setting in the middle of the night. More information about the Moon's phases is available here.

Observing the Moon at first quarter

Over coming days, the Moon will set later each day, becoming visible for more of the night. Within a few days, it will not make it very far above the eastern horizon before nightfall. By the time it reaches full phase, it will be visible for much of the night, rising at around dusk and setting at around dawn.

Its daily progress is charted below, with all times are given in Ashburn local time.

Date Sun
sets at
Moon
sets at
Altitude of Moon
at sunset
Direction of Moon
at sunset
19 Sep 202019:1220:2112°west
20 Sep 202019:1120:5318°south-west
21 Sep 202019:0921:2822°south-west
22 Sep 202019:0822:0625°south-west
23 Sep 202019:0622:5026°south
24 Sep 202019:0423:4026°south
25 Sep 202019:0300:3525°south
26 Sep 202019:0101:3523°south-east
27 Sep 202018:5902:3719°south-east
28 Sep 202018:5803:3915°south-east
29 Sep 202018:5604:4010°south-east
30 Sep 202018:5505:40east

The exact moment of first quarter

The exact moment of first quarter is defined as the time when the Moon's ecliptic longitude is exactly 90° away from the Sun's ecliptic longitude, as observed from the center of the Earth. However, the Moon does not appear in any way special at this instant in time, and a first quarter moon can be observed at any time in the evening sky.

At the moment it reaches first quarter, the Moon's distance from the Earth will be 378,000 km. Its celestial coordinates will be as follows:

Object Right Ascension Declination Constellation Angular Size
The Moon 18h05m10s 24°05'S Sagittarius 31'33"

The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.

The sky on 23 Sep 2020

The sky on 23 September 2020
Sunrise
06:56
Sunset
19:04
Twilight ends
20:34
Twilight begins
05:26

6-day old moon
Waxing Gibbous

55%

6 days old

Planets
Rise Culm. Set
Mercury 09:04 14:28 19:53
Venus 03:31 10:24 17:17
Moon 14:06 18:54 23:40
Mars 20:19 02:43 09:07
Jupiter 15:28 20:12 00:55
Saturn 15:55 20:44 01:34
All times shown in EDT.

Source

The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.

Related news

23 Sep 2020  –  Moon at First Quarter
01 Oct 2020  –  Full Moon
09 Oct 2020  –  Moon at Last Quarter
16 Oct 2020  –  New Moon

Image credit

Simulated image courtesy of Tom Ruen.

Share

Ashburn

Latitude:
Longitude:
Timezone:

39.04°N
77.49°W
EDT

Color scheme