Moon and star Spica on July 11

• News & Highlights

Tonight – as darkness falls on July 11, 2016 – the moon will be shining close to Spica, brightest star in the constellation Virgo the Maiden. As for the moon itself, we’re seeing half its lighted face now, or a quarter of the whole moon. In the (usually) unerring logic of astronomy we’ll call it a first quarter moon.

At quarter moon, the moon’s disk appears half-illuminated in sunshine and half-engulfed in the moon’s own shadow.

The lunar terminator – the shadow line dividing the lunar day from the lunar night – shows you where it’s sunrise on the moon as it waxes from new moon to full moon.