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

First Quarter in Aries

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 27 December 2025 at 19:10 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 is entering ♈ Aries

Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

Wolf Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2026 after 6 days on 3 January 2026 at 10:03.

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 ∠1924"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1924" and ∠1951".

Lunation 321 / 1274

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 321 of Meeus index or 1274 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.76 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 9 minutes and it is 2 hours 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 5 hours and 25 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 38 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠207°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠207° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠239°.

Moon before perigee

10 days since point of apogee on 17 December 2025 at 06:09 in ♏ Scorpio the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 January 2026 at 21:43 in ♊ Gemini.

Distance to Moon 372 460 km

The Moon is 372 460 km (231 436 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 5 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 360 348 km (223 910 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 25 December 2025 at 22:03 in ♓ Pisces the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 10 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 7 January 2026 at 11:22 in ♍ Virgo.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 19 December 2025 at 23:18 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-28.233° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 5 days to face maximum declination of ∠28.265° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 January 2026 at 08:20 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

1 day 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 6 days

In 6 days on 3 January 2026 at 10:03 in ♋ Cancer 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