First Quarter Moon 20-06-2018

First quarter: The moon is 90 degrees away from the sun in the sky and is half-illuminated from our point of view. We call it the “first quarter” because the moon has travelled about a quarter of the way around Earth since the new moon. (*Source: space.com)

The First Quarter Moon is a primary Moon phase when half of the Moon’s face is lit up. Whether it is the left or right half depends on where you are on Earth.

It’s also called a Half Moon because the Sun’s rays illuminate exactly 50% of the Moon’s surface.

Half of the Moon’s surface is always illuminated by direct sunlight, except during lunar eclipses when Earth casts its shadow on the Moon. Just how much of that light we can see from Earth varies every day, and we call this a Moon phase.

The Moon is the only astronomical object you can easily see in the day blue sky apart from the Sun. The First Quarter Moon rises around midday and sets around midnight. This is the opposite of a third Quarter Moon, which rises in the middle of the night and sets in the middle of the day. (*Source: timeanddate.com)