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

First Quarter in Pisces

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 46% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 23 December 2028 at 21:45 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 ♓ Pisces

Moon is leaving the last ∠2° of ♓ Pisces tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♈ Aries later.

Cold Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Cold Moon of December 2028 after 8 days on 31 December 2028 at 16:48.

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 ∠1768"

Lunar disc appears visually 9.8% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1768" and ∠1951".

Lunation 358 / 1311

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 358 of Meeus index or 1311 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.64 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 18 minutes and it is 1 hour and 49 minutes shorter 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 34 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 29 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠63.8°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠63.8° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠99.9°.

Moon at apogee

Moon is at apogee at 21:00 about 12 days since last perigee on 11 December 2028 at 12:44 in ♎ Libra the lunar orbit is going to narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth over the upcoming 12 days until point of next perigee on 5 January 2029 at 04:16 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 404 409 km

This apogee Moon is 404 409 km (251 288 mi) away from Earth. It is 999 km further than the mean apogee distance, but it is still 2 300 km closer than the farthest apogee of 21st century.

Moon after ascending node

5 days after ascending node on 17 December 2028 at 12:41 in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 31 December 2028 at 22:49 in ♋ Cancer.

Moon before northern standstill

7 days since the last southern standstill on 15 December 2028 at 16:37 in ♐ Sagittarius when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-25.184° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 6 days to face maximum declination of ∠25.195° at the point of next northern standstill on 30 December 2028 at 02:35 in ♊ Gemini.

Draconic month

5 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♑ Capricorn the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 31 December 2028 at 16:48 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