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

First Quarter in Cancer

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 60% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 5 April 2006 at 12:01 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

Pink Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2006 after 7 days on 13 April 2006 at 16:40.

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 ∠1792"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.7% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1792" and ∠1917".

Lunation 77 / 1030

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 77 of Meeus index or 1030 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.4 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 9 hours and 29 minutes and it is 13 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. This is the year's shortest synodic month of 2006. 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 3 hours and 15 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 54 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠19°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠19° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠38.4°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 28 March 2006 at 07:13 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 9 April 2006 at 13:16 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 399 953 km

The Moon is 399 953 km (248 519 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 3 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 551 km (251 998 mi).

Moon before descending node

8 days after ascending node on 29 March 2006 at 03:31 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 5 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 12 April 2006 at 02:35 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

2 days since the last northern standstill on 4 April 2006 at 07:35 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠28.715° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-28.668° at the point of next southern standstill on 18 April 2006 at 22:27 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

8 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♈ Aries the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 13 April 2006 at 16:40 in ♎ Libra 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