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

First Quarter in Sagittarius

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 28 August 2066 at 08:25 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 ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠7° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

Harvest Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon of September 2066 after 6 days on 4 September 2066 at 01:37.

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 ∠1961"

Lunar disc appears visually 3.2% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1961" and ∠1900".

Lunation 824 / 1777

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 824 of Meeus index or 1777 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.54 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 12 hours and 58 minutes and it is 1 hour and 3 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 longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 13 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 6 hours and 49 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠236.4°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠236.4° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠272.1°.

Moon before perigee

12 days since point of apogee on 16 August 2066 at 05:19 in ♋ Cancer the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 3 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 1 September 2066 at 01:49 in ♑ Capricorn.

Distance to Moon 365 474 km

The Moon is 365 474 km (227 095 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 3 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 365 541 km (227 137 mi).

Moon before ascending node

11 days after descending node on 16 August 2066 at 21:14 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 2 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 30 August 2066 at 14:05 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon before southern standstill

13 days since the last northern standstill on 15 August 2066 at 06:35 in ♊ Gemini when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.625° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-24.516° at the point of next southern standstill on 29 August 2066 at 07:59 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Draconic month

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

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 4 September 2066 at 01:37 in ♓ Pisces 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