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 47% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 17 February 2013 at 20:31 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 ∠25° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

Snow Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2013 after 8 days on 25 February 2013 at 20:26.

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 ∠1776"

Lunar disc appears visually 8.9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1776" and ∠1941".

Lunation 162 / 1115

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 162 of Meeus index or 1115 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.52 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 31 minutes and it is 1 hour and 13 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 13 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 56 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠44.2°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠44.2° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠73.6°.

Moon before apogee

9 days since point of perigee on 7 February 2013 at 12:09 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 day until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 19 February 2013 at 06:30 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 403 678 km

The Moon is 403 678 km (250 834 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next day until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 475 km (251 329 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♉ Taurus at 02:57 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 13 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 3 March 2013 at 02:30 in ♏ Scorpio.

Moon before northern standstill

11 days since the last southern standstill on 6 February 2013 at 00:27 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.704° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.583° at the point of next northern standstill on 19 February 2013 at 13:35 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 25 February 2013 at 20:26 in ♍ Virgo 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