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 51% and growing larger. The lunar cycle is 7 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 19 March 2070 at 09:53 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 ♋ Cancer

Moon is passing first ∠0° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector.

Worm Moon after 7 days

Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon of March 2070 after 7 days on 26 March 2070 at 17:31.

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 ∠1960"

Lunar disc appears visually 1.7% wider than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1960" and ∠1927".

Lunation 868 / 1821

The Moon is 7 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 868 of Meeus index or 1821 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.44 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 38 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 shorter than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 6 minutes shorter than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 3 minutes longer compared to 21st century's shortest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠312°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠312° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠333.5°.

Moon after perigee

3 days since point of perigee on 15 March 2070 at 17:55 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 12 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 31 March 2070 at 17:01 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Distance to Moon 365 790 km

The Moon is 365 790 km (227 291 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 12 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 405 036 km (251 678 mi).

Moon after descending node

4 days after descending node on 14 March 2070 at 23:47 in ♈ Aries the Moon is positioned south of the ecliptic over the following 8 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from South to North in ascending node on 28 March 2070 at 06:44 in ♎ Libra.

Moon at northern standstill

At 00:13 the Moon is meeting its standstill point to reach North declination of ∠18.809°. Over the upcoming 13 days the lunar orbit is going to tilt southward to face maximum declination of ∠-18.755° at the point of next southern standstill in ♐ Sagittarius on 2 April 2070 at 03:16.

Draconic month

18 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♏ Scorpio the Moon is navigating from the second to the final part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 7 days

In 7 days on 26 March 2070 at 17:31 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