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 25 December 2036 at 19:44 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 ∠1° of ♈ Aries tropical zodiac sector.

Wolf Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Wolf Moon of January 2037 after 7 days on 2 January 2037 at 02:35.

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 ∠1784"

Lunar disc appears visually 9% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1784" and ∠1951".

Lunation 457 / 1410

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 457 of Meeus index or 1410 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.75 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 1 minute and it is 1 hour and 20 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 5 hours and 16 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 47 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠113°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠113° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠146.7°.

Moon after apogee

2 days since point of apogee on 23 December 2036 at 01:08 in ♓ Pisces the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 9 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 3 January 2037 at 21:29 in ♌ Leo.

Distance to Moon 401 848 km

The Moon is 401 848 km (249 697 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 9 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 542 km (224 652 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 21 December 2036 at 02:03 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 9 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 3 January 2037 at 20:54 in ♌ Leo.

Moon after southern standstill

6 days since the last southern standstill on 18 December 2036 at 19:32 in ♑ Capricorn when the Moon has reached South declination of ∠-20.597° the lunar orbit is extending northward over the next 7 days to face maximum declination of ∠20.593° at the point of next northern standstill on 2 January 2037 at 00:56 in ♋ Cancer.

Draconic month

17 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 7 days

In 7 days on 2 January 2037 at 02:35 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