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

First Quarter in Capricorn

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 58% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 1 October 2014 at 19:33 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 ♑ Capricorn

Moon is passing about ∠18° of ♑ Capricorn tropical zodiac sector.

Hunter Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Hunter Moon of October 2014 after 5 days on 8 October 2014 at 10:51.

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 ∠1955"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1955" and ∠1917".

Lunation 182 / 1135

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 182 of Meeus index or 1135 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.65 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 43 minutes and it is 1 hour and 7 minutes longer 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 59 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 4 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠218.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠218.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠252.3°.

Moon before perigee

11 days since point of apogee on 20 September 2014 at 14:22 in ♌ Leo the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 6 October 2014 at 09:41 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 366 684 km

The Moon is 366 684 km (227 847 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 362 481 km (225 235 mi).

Moon before descending node

6 days after ascending node on 25 September 2014 at 17:41 in ♎ Libra the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 6 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 8 October 2014 at 17:44 in ♈ Aries.

Moon after southern standstill

1 day since the last southern standstill on 30 September 2014 at 19:29 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-18.528° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠18.517° at the point of next northern standstill on 13 October 2014 at 13:34 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

6 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 8 October 2014 at 10:51 in ♈ Aries 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