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

First Quarter in Cancer

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 53% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 14 April 2016 at 03:59 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 in ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠1° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

Pink Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2016 after 7 days on 22 April 2016 at 05:24.

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 ∠1866"

Lunar disc appears visually 2.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1866" and ∠1912".

Lunation 201 / 1154

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 201 of Meeus index or 1154 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.34 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 6 minutes and it is 36 minutes longer 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 4 hours and 38 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 31 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠355.6°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠355.6° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠10.8°.

Moon after perigee

6 days since point of perigee on 7 April 2016 at 17:36 in ♈ Aries the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 21 April 2016 at 16:05 in ♎ Libra.

Distance to Moon 384 176 km

The Moon is 384 176 km (238 716 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 352 km (252 495 mi).

Moon before ascending node

8 days after descending node on 5 April 2016 at 17:27 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 4 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 18 April 2016 at 18:04 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 12 April 2016 at 12:12 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.288° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 12 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.382° at the point of next southern standstill on 27 April 2016 at 04:44 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

22 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♍ Virgo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 22 April 2016 at 05:24 in ♏ Scorpio 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