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

First Quarter in Aquarius

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 54% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 22 October 2012 at 03:32 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

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

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon is entering ♒ Aquarius

Moon is passing first ∠4° of ♒ Aquarius tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2012 after 7 days on 29 October 2012 at 19:50.

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 ∠1922"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.3% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1922" and ∠1929".

Lunation 158 / 1111

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 158 of Meeus index or 1111 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.42 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 5 minutes and it is 29 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to decrease with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at perigee (∠0° or ∠360°).

Lunation length shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 39 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 30 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠334.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠334.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠351.3°.

Moon after perigee

5 days since point of perigee on 17 October 2012 at 01:02 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 10 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 1 November 2012 at 15:30 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 372 918 km

The Moon is 372 918 km (231 721 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 10 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 050 km (252 308 mi).

Moon after ascending node

4 days after ascending node on 17 October 2012 at 18:27 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 31 October 2012 at 10:36 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon after southern standstill

3 days since the last southern standstill on 19 October 2012 at 06:49 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.964° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 10 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.920° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 November 2012 at 08:15 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

4 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 29 October 2012 at 19:50 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