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

First Quarter in Gemini

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 63% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 23 February 2018 at 08:09 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 ♊ Gemini

Moon is passing about ∠21° of ♊ Gemini tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 5 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2018 after 5 days on 2 March 2018 at 00:51.

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 ∠1966"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1966" and ∠1938".

Lunation 224 / 1177

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 224 of Meeus index or 1177 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.67 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 16 hours and 6 minutes and it is 3 hours and 20 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 3 hours and 22 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 3 hours and 41 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠227.1°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠227.1° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠262.6°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 11 February 2018 at 14:16 in ♐ Sagittarius 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 27 February 2018 at 14:48 in ♋ Cancer.

Distance to Moon 364 522 km

The Moon is 364 522 km (226 503 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 363 938 km (226 141 mi).

Moon before ascending node

9 days after descending node on 14 February 2018 at 21:11 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 3 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 February 2018 at 05:03 in ♌ Leo.

Moon before northern standstill

12 days since the last southern standstill on 11 February 2018 at 23:21 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.026° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠20.056° at the point of next northern standstill on 25 February 2018 at 20:07 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

23 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♌ Leo the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 5 days

In 5 days on 2 March 2018 at 00:51 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