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

First Quarter in Taurus

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 55% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 18 January 2013 at 23:45 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠5° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

Wolf Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2013 after 7 days on 27 January 2013 at 04:38.

Moderate tide

There is medium ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at very acute angle, so their combined tidal force is moderate.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1791"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1791" and ∠1950".

Lunation 161 / 1114

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 161 of Meeus index or 1114 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.48 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 11 hours and 36 minutes and it is 55 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 1 hour and 8 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 1 minute longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠23.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠23.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠44.2°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 10 January 2013 at 10:26 in ♑ Capricorn the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 2 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 22 January 2013 at 10:52 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 400 286 km

The Moon is 400 286 km (248 726 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 2 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 313 km (251 850 mi).

Moon before descending node

11 days after ascending node on 7 January 2013 at 23:50 in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following day until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 21 January 2013 at 01:19 in ♉ Taurus.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 9 January 2013 at 15:22 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.879° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 3 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.816° at the point of next northern standstill on 23 January 2013 at 05:12 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

11 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 27 January 2013 at 04:38 in ♌ Leo 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