First Quarter Moon
First Quarter MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

First Quarter in Aquarius

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 53% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 6 November 2008 at 04:04 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

The moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Beaver Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Beaver Moon of November 2008 after 6 days on 13 November 2008 at 06:17.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1812"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.6% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1812" and ∠1936".

Lunation 109 / 1062

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 109 of Meeus index or 1062 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.74 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 17 hours and 41 minutes and it is 1 hour and 47 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 4 hours and 57 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 6 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠133.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠133.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠161.9°.

Moon after apogee

4 days since point of apogee on 2 November 2008 at 04:55 in ♐ Sagittarius the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 14 November 2008 at 09:59 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 395 651 km

The Moon is 395 651 km (245 846 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 7 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 358 973 km (223 055 mi).

Moon in ascending node

Moon is in ascending node in ♒ Aquarius at 03:34 crossing the ecliptic from South to North. Lunar position remains north of if for the upcoming 12 days until Moon's next descending node later on 18 November 2008 at 18:37 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

4 days since the last southern standstill on 1 November 2008 at 20:56 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-27.155° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 8 days to face maximum declination of ∠27.088° at the point of next northern standstill on 15 November 2008 at 08:19 in ♊ Gemini.

New draconic month

At 03:34 in the point ot ascending node the Moon is completing the last draconic month and is entering a new one while the lunar orbit is crossing the ecliptic from South to North.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 13 November 2008 at 06:17 in ♉ Taurus the Moon is going to be in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov