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

First Quarter in Taurus

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 52% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 5 February 2025 at 08:02 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 ♉ Taurus

Moon is passing about ∠19° of ♉ Taurus tropical zodiac sector.

Snow Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2025 after 7 days on 12 February 2025 at 13:53.

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 ∠1964"

Lunar disc appears visually 0.9% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1964" and ∠1946".

Lunation 310 / 1263

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 310 of Meeus index or 1263 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.51 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 9 minutes and it is 1 hour and 56 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 35 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 5 hours and 34 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠305.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠305.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠329.3°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 2 February 2025 at 02:43 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 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 18 February 2025 at 01:11 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 364 979 km

The Moon is 364 979 km (226 787 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 404 882 km (251 582 mi).

Moon after ascending node

3 days after ascending node on 1 February 2025 at 22:06 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 15 February 2025 at 06:53 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

9 days since the last southern standstill on 26 January 2025 at 13:27 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.534° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 2 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.599° at the point of next northern standstill on 8 February 2025 at 10:40 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

3 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♓ Pisces the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 12 February 2025 at 13:53 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