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

First Quarter in Cancer

First Quarter on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 49% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 6 April 2033 at 15:14 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing about ∠15° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Pink Moon after 8 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2033 after 8 days on 14 April 2033 at 19:17.

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 ∠1838"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1838" and ∠1917".

Lunation 411 / 1364

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 411 of Meeus index or 1364 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.37 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 8 hours and 55 minutes and it is 5 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 3 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 2 hours and 20 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠8.3°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠8.3° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠25.1°.

Moon before apogee

7 days since point of perigee on 30 March 2033 at 06:09 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 5 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 12 April 2033 at 02:26 in ♍ Virgo.

Distance to Moon 389 951 km

The Moon is 389 951 km (242 304 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 5 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 060 km (252 314 mi).

Moon after descending node

6 days after descending node on 31 March 2033 at 11:09 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 7 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 14 April 2033 at 11:28 in ♎ Libra.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 4 April 2033 at 20:56 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠18.590° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 13 days to face maximum declination of ∠-18.596° at the point of next southern standstill on 19 April 2033 at 14:20 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

19 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♎ Libra the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 8 days

In 8 days on 14 April 2033 at 19:17 in ♎ Libra 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