1.6: The United States Naval Observatory’s Astronomical Applications

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The United States Naval Observatory’s Astronomical Applications

USNO Website Screenshot

The home page for the USNO Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day website. [” USNO Page ” by Florida State College at Jacksonville is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 ]

One of the contemporary services provided by the United States Naval Observatory to the public is its “Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day” website. The user can obtain reliable and accurate sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset dates and times for specific locations. Other useful information is also provided about the Sun and Moon’s daily motions specific to the user’s location and desired date.

Phases of the Moon Screenshot

The USNO’s Phases of the Moon website. This allows the user to create a calendar or matrix of when each Moon phase will occur – New Moon, 1st Quarter Moon, Full Moon, and Last Quarter Moon. [” USNO Page ” by Florida State College at Jacksonville is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 ]

The site provides accurate sunrise and sunset times for the location and date requested, as well as moonrise, moonset, and moon phase information. The transit information is the time when the Sun or Moon will cross the observer’s meridian — that north-zenith-south line which divides the sky into two halves. One half of the sky is rising, the other half of the sky is setting.

Civil twilight is the time when sunlight is visible, even though the Sun has not yet risen. Begin Civil twilight is in the morning before the Sun rises; End Civil twilight is in the evening after the Sun sets.

A screen shot of data from the website is shown.

Jacksonville, Florida Sun and Moon data for January 1, 2018. [” USNO Page ” by Florida State College at Jacksonville is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 ]

The data provided for the Moon covers not only moonrise and moonset, but the current lunar phase, percent illuminated, and a photo of what the Moon will look like in the sky.

A screen shot of data and an image of the moon from the website is shown.

Jacksonville, Florida Moon data for January 1, 2018. Note the information on the Moon’s phase as well as the image of the Moon. The site also provides a Back to form line to click and return the user to the information page, so another date and/or location can be provided by the user. [” USNO Page ” by Florida State College at Jacksonville is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 ]

The USNO also maintains a website cataloging the phases of the Moon. This site allows you to find the phases of the Moon for a specific period of time and number of phases. ¹

Phases of the Moon : U.S. Naval Observatory: Astronomical Applications Department

Date and Time (Universal Time)
New Moon	First Quarter	Full Moon	Last Quarter
—	—	2018 Jan 02 02:24	2018 Jan 08 22:25
2018 Jan 17 02:17	2018 Jan 24 22:20	2018 Jan 31 13:27	2018 Feb 07 15:54
2018 Feb 15 21:05	2018 Feb 23 08:09	2018 Mar 02 00:51	2018 Mar 09 11:20
2018 Mar 17 13:12	2018 Mar 24 15:35	2018 Mar 31 12:37	2018 Apr 08 07:17
2018 Apr 16 01:57	2018 Apr 22 21:46	2018 Apr 30 00:58	2018 May 08 02:09
2018 May 15 11:48	2018 May 22 03:49	2018 May 29 14:19	2018 Jun 06 18:32
2018 Jun 13 19:43	2018 Jun 20 10:51	2018 Jun 28 04:53	2018 Jul 06 07:51
2018 Jul 13 02:48	2018 Jul 19 19:52	2018 Jul 27 20:20	2018 Aug 04 18:18
2018 Aug 11 09:58	2018 Aug 18 07:48	2018 Aug 26 11:56	2018 Sep 03 02:37
2018 Sep 09 18:01	2018 Sep 16 23:15	2018 Sep 25 02:52	2018 Oct 02 09:45
2018 Oct 09 03:47	2018 Oct 16 18:02	2018 Oct 24 16:45	2018 Oct 31 16:40
2018 Nov 07 16:02	2018 Nov 15 14:54	2018 Nov 23 05:39	2018 Nov 30 00:19
2018 Dec 07 07:20	2018 Dec 15 11:49	2018 Dec 22 17:49	2018 Dec 29 09:34
Universal Time (UT) is also referred to as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and is based on the Prime Meridian.

Authored by: Florida State College at Jacksonville. License: CC BY: Attribution