• This month, the first quarter moon is found in front of the constellation Virgo and in between the planets Mars and Saturn. Ruddy Mars glowers very close to the Virgo star Zavijava, whereas golden Saturn shines fairly close to Virgo's one and only first-magnitude star, sparkling blue-white Spica. Zavijava, though, is a faint fourth-magnitude star, so you may need binoculars to see it gleaming next to Mars.
• The first quarter moon falls on June 27, 2012 at precisely 3:30 Universal Time (UT). Converting UT to the what the clock reads in our U.S. time zones, we find that the first quarter moon comes today - on June 26 - at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 10:30 p.m.

Central Daylight Time, 9:30 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time and 8:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
• For time zones in the mainland U.S., the moon will be above the horizon at that time, since a first quarter moon rises around noon, and sets around midnight. In other words, we in the U.S. will be seeing the moon tonight as it reaches the precise first quarter phase.
• At quarter moon, half the lunar disk - the face of the moon we see from Earth - is illuminated by sunlight. Meanwhile, the other half of the moon's face is engulfed in the moon's own shadow. So why, people often ask, is the half-lit moon called a quarter moon?
• We can offer some possible explanations. First of all, we can only see one-half of

(Continued on page 9)